Today, during an investor briefing, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata shared the first details of the company’s new “QOL” (quality of life) business, which it intends to launch sometime in 2016.
The QOL business will revolve around various aspects of health-related themes, and the first one that Nintendo intend to tackle is that of sleep and fatigue. Being able to visualize your sleep and fatigue, Iwata said, will make it easier to maintain better health, and the company will make this possible using a “non-wearable” product.
“Non-wearable,” Iwata elaborated, is one of five traits of Nintendo’s product to monitor sleep and fatigue. The other four traits are: non-contact, non-operating, non-waiting, and non-installation efforts. Here’s a brief summary of what each of those traits means:
- Non-wearable: The product will not be a wearable device
- Non-contact: The product will not make contact with your body
- Non-operating: The product will not require you to actively operate it
- Non-waiting: The product will not make you wait for results/measurements
- Non-installation efforts: You will not be required to install the product
This product, which is currently being referred to as a “QOL Sensor,” will simply need to be placed by your bedside. It will contain a radio frequency sensor, which will measure the movements of your body, breathing and heartbeat, without ever physically touching your body. The gathered data will automatically be transmitted to cloud servers, which will then analyze it and visually show you your sleep and fatigue conditions.
Nintendo say part that, since fatigue isn’t recognized as a “disease” in the medical world, there’s still a lot of research into the subject that needs to be conducted. As a result, the company has teamed up with a group of medical experts that specialize in the field, as well as with ResMed, a U.S. based company that develops and markets medical equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of Sleep Disordered Breathing, COPD and other chronic diseases.
Nintendo say that their QOL cloud data will be compatible with their videogame systems as well as smart devices. Presumably, this means you’ll be able to use your phone or Wii U or whatever other device Nintendo has out at the time to check up on your sleep and fatigue.
