Way back in January, Nintendo announced that it was working on non-gaming products, dubbed “Quality of Life” products. The first would be health-based. Since that fateful day of January 29 we hadn’t heard a peep.
Until today, that is.
Nintendo is developing a sleep sensor.
Revealed during their Investor presentation today, the company’s first QOL product will be a device that attaches to or sits next to a bed and tracks sleep. Using radio waves, respiration tracking, motion tracking, heart rate tracking and other methods, the device will watch us sleep, relaying information through Nintendo’s cloud servers. This in turn will analyze the data, give scores, and eventually “teach” us how to improve our sleeping methods and health through exercise (use your Wii U Fit more often, dummy!) and diet (eat less sugary candy, dummy!).
Though it will initially work with its consoles and handhelds, Nintendo stated that it would eventually become accessible from mobile devices as well.
Nintendo is teaming up with ResMed, an American company that specializes in products like CPAP machines and dealing with those diagnosed with sleep apnea. The area of sleep is trending to become a boom market to consumers, as companies like Beddit and Withings are developing products that help users maintain healthier sleep habits.
It’s interesting that Nintendo is expanding beyond just games (again). The company mentions that their renewed focus is in improving the quality of life for everyone, whether it be through games or health. This should open them up to potentially be more Apple-like, focusing on the overall experience of users and not just creating a platform for games.
The QOL products won’t be launching until 2016, so we’ll probably hear more throughout 2015.
Source: Nintendo
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