Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata. He’s announced that the company will make a sleep sensor.
When Nintendo games don’t keep you up all night, the company wants to help you sleep as soundly as possible.
The video-game giant on Thursday revealed a product called the QOL Sensor, a fatigue- and sleep-monitoring device that goes on your nightstand.
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced it was working on non-wearable technology as part of its new “Quality of Life” (QOL) platform to improve the way we live, and now we know a little bit more about what the line will bring.
The first product is a standalone device, so you won’t need a Nintendo game console like the Wii U to use it — although we expect you’ll need to download a corresponding app to get information about your sleeping patterns.
According to Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, the device’s sensors measure your breathing, heartbeat and body movement without ever touching you. The collected data then goes to its cloud servers for analyzing and is packaged into visualizations for the user to understand.
While other sleep-monitoring devices track how many hours you’re getting each night, Nintendo is focused on zapping fatigue and making suggestions to keep you energized throughout the day. For now, details are slim on pricing and availability — or even what the device looks like.
“Since fatigue is not regarded as a disease in the medical world, it is said to be a field where sufficient research has yet to be conducted,” said Iwata, according to GameSpot.com. “We have been fortunate to encounter several experts who have been conducting cutting-edge research in the science of fatigue. Together, we are now developing technology to estimate fatigue.”
While a fitness-tracking wristband may have been a more predictable step for the gaming company — we’d like to see one with Super Mario-like gamification that lets you unlock new levels the more you keep moving — this is a big step into the popular health and fitness tech category.
