Sure, IBM’s Watson is able to beat humans to the buzzer on some lousy television game show. But how does the smarmy supercomputer hold up to the business end of a baseball bat wielded by a jealous husband with opposable thumbs? Click through the break for a taste of sweet, carbon-based revenge.

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A newly published patent from Sony Computer Entertainment, which looks a lot like the company’s PlayStation 3 motion controller, showcases a plethora of possibilities for the forthcoming device, more attachments than you could shake a Wii Remote at.

The patent for an “Expandable Control Device Via Hardware Attachment” touches on a number of control options. According to details from the patent, Sony’s motion controller may offer the option to join two motion control units together lengthwise—previously seen in an earlier patent—or in an H-shape.

And as pictured above, a unique, secondary controller attachment may offer a solution to the one DualShock in one hand, one motion controller in the other hand scheme seen at Sony’s Tokyo Game Show press conference.

Other potentially interesting add-on possibilities are attachments shaped like a baseball bat, a the business end of a flashlight and a rattle-like sphere that’s very maraca like.

Perhaps more interesting is a proposed biometric reader attachment, including a “thumb reader used to validate the identity of the person holding the controller by analyzing the biometric data provided by the attachment.”

Additional possibilities included microphone attachments and swappable control faceplates—letting the player customize whether a motion controller has buttons or a d-pad or even a dial.

Of course, this is a patent, not a product announcement. Sony could simply release the motion controller as previously seen, with none of these possibilities becoming actual products. But take a look at some of the drawings in the gallery below and check out the patent to see what Sony may have in mind.

Expandable Control Device Via Hardware Attachment [USPTO.gov]

Wii Sports is an excellent game, but it can feel a bit silly at times flailing your arms about as you pretend to play various games. Perhaps it’s fortunate then, that no matter what the game, it appears that there is an accessory for it. Case in point: the new officially licensed Louisville slugger bat.

Now you can relive your favorite scene from “Casino” on your Wii. The foam bat is available for $14.99 from your favorite toy megastore, just in time for that non-denominational holiday celebration.

From the Toy’s R Us site:

Louisville Slugger Wii Baseball Bat – Transform your Wii controller in to a big league style bat with the Louisville Slugger Wii Baseball bat. The product is designed to securely hold the controllers, allowing for full use of all buttons, straps and IR functions. The foam construction makes for safe play. The Louisville Slugger Wii Baseball bat is compatible with games such as Major League Baseball 2K9, The Bigs 2 and MLB Power Pros. Wii Remote sold separately.

If you’ve just purchased the Nintendo Wii, let me be the first to tell you that you’re going to need to set aside at least as much as you spent on the console in an “accessory fund” — hopefully interest-bearing.

At first glance, this “Nintendo Wii 38-in-1 Super Accessory Bundle Pack” seems like it’d get a lot of those pesky accessory purchases out of the way at an easy-to-swallow $38 purchase price.

Upon closer inspection, though, many of those 38 accessories are made up of tiny nubbins, caps, and dust covers. You do get a steering wheel, golf club, baseball bat, tennis racket, “multi complex mini stick”, hand grip pad, and a couple of remote cases, but after that the remaining 30 accessories are mostly fluff.

Like the 14-piece “console port silicon dust cover” and the 10 “Nunchuk silicon caps” — silicon caps that go over the stick part of the Wii nunchuk. Gee, thanks.

Nintendo Wii 38-in-1 Super Accessory Bundle Pack [Overstock via dealspl.us]

New season, new ball. The three big football leagues—England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A—begin in just a few weeks, and Nike has developed a fancy, new ball for them that’s loaded with all types of hi-tech goodness that may pique your interest. It’s called the T90 Ascente. Goalkeepers will hate it; flashy forwards will love it.

What’s so damn special about the ball? The Nike bullet points are: “360 Sweet Spot,” “Longer Range,” “Increased Visibility,” “Higher Accuracy,” and “Greater Speed.”

Breaking those down, the “360 Sweet Spot” refers to the way the ball reacts to being kicked. Usually, footballs have a “sweet spot,” like the “meat” of a baseball bat, that you’re trained to hit for maximum speeds, accuracy, etc. Apparently the T90 Ascente doesn’t have a “sweet spot,” per se, rather that the whole ball is a sweet spot. That is, wherever you kick it, the ball will react as if you’ve kicked the sweet spot. Good news for Quaresma. (Why do sports compilation videos on YouTube always have terrible music?)

Longer range? That’s pretty obvious, right? The ball is constructed in three layers, and this somehow makes the ball travel two ball lengths longer than previous Nike footballs.

Increased visibility. You’ll notice the patterns on the ball; it sort of looks like the scanner from Half-Life 2:

Anyhow, the patterns are such that they create a “flicker” as the ball spins. That’ll be helpful on those awful, gray winter days in Liverpool.

If you actually had the ball in your hands, you’d see that its surface is textured to a degree that’s probably a little different than the last ball you kicked. Nike calls it “micro-textured,” which basically lets air flow around the ball more smoothly, creating less resistance, etc. You know, like the dimples on a golf ball.

The T90 Ascenete is also faster than previous balls, traveling at about 22.19 m/s (72.17 feet/s). Something to do with the three-layer construction.

All this talk of multi-layer construction reminds me of the great Razor Blade Wars of the past decade. “Our razor has three blades.” “Well our razor has four blades.” “Ha! Our blade has five blades!.

And, uh, if you speak Spanish, watch this video. It explains the technological wonder of the ball.

Nike has its own video, in English, that I can’t embed. (Though, if I were feeling crazy, I could probably just swipe the Flash file then upload to our CG YouTube account. No thanks.) It’s here if you’re interested.

About 15 minutes ago I wrote “Goalkeepers will hate it; flashy forwards will love it.” But now I see FC Barcelona’s goalkeeper Víctor Valdés praising the ball in that Spanish video. Figures.

Sony has formally joined the battle of the motion controllers after unveiling their, as yet unnamed, hand-held motion controller at E3. Made up of two handsets the new controller works with the existing PS3′s eye. The “technology demo” showed the way in which a player becomes part of the in-game experience, appearing on-screen, with the controller replaced by a variety of implements, from a baseball bat, to a weird sort of light-sabre whip thing. Richard Marks, head of development for Sony’s new motion controller said “The controller can be measured to sub-millimetre accuracy.” And in three dimensions, so not only does it know how far your controllers are from each other, it knows how far they are from the screen, which will allow for some potentially very immersive 3D gameplay. Kaz Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment President, said: “With PlayStation 2, when we launched the EyeToy camera, we had already perfected the art of playing games just using your hands.” “The motion controller we demoed today, it raises the bar in terms of accuracy in 3D. It’s all about the accuracy and tracking.” The new controller is being muted for a Spring ’10 launch, though by then Project Natal will be everywhere. Sony have been quite sorely beaten to the punch on this one, and by Microsoft, stuffy old Microsoft – that’s got to hurt. (Via BBC)