Nintendo experimenting with health tech

Written by David Hing

October 30, 2014 | 12:19

Tags: #wii-fit

Companies: #nintendo

Nintendo has unveiled initial details about its quality of life (QOL) health platform, showing off a sensor that monitors and analyses your sleep patterns.

The QOL device is not wearable tech and is designed to operate with minimal setup. It monitors sleep using radio waves to pick up on movement during sleep, heart rate and breathing patterns. The collected data is then sent to centralised servers to be analysed.

The device intends to improve the health of the user and reports findings back through either a smart device or ‘dedicated video game devices’, most likely a Wii U or 3DS.

The video game company is partnering with ResMed, a US medical equipment manufacturer with prior experience with sleep-related devices. The sleep monitor is expected to be ready for the consumer audience in 2016.

Improving ‘quality of life through entertainment’ is something that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata emphasised earlier in 2014 and is something that Nintendo has already experimented with through the Wii Fit, which launched in late 2007.

Nintendo also perplexed fans and journalists in 2009 during E3 when it revealed the vitality sensor, a small device that clipped over the finger and monitored your pulse. The vitality sensor was going to be a peripheral for the Wii and was purportedly going to help the player relax by informing them about their heart rate. The device has since been cancelled.
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