Measuring your blood flow with blue lights. Not at all trippy.

You certainly can't argue with Nintendo's branding department when it comes to game names. Back in my day, it used to be a "Super" here or a "64" there, but these days the Wii name is even stronger than Nintendo's, with the big N keen to slap it on every game they release, including the recently hinted-at "Wii Vitality".

The Vitality Sensor's unveiling at E3 could hardly have been called "industry-shaking", but now the hoo-hah has died down Nintendo head honcho Satoru Iwata has been showing off the device and its applications to a few select journalists, including the Times Online's technology editor Nigel Kendall.

Recounting a meeting with Iwata and the Vitality Sensor, Kendall lets out the first details of the game's self-explanatory "Wii Vitality" game:

Our meeting closes with a personal demonstration of Iwata’s latest new thing: the Wii Vitality Sensor, which he first revealed the day before to an astonished E3 audience. Nintendo employees were no less surprised: this was something that Iwata had been keeping under wraps, even editing the explanatory video himself on the plane over from Japan.

Wii Vitality, which is expected to ship next year, is a small electronic thimble that sits on the end of a forefinger. It uses light sensors to measure the flow of blood, extrapolating information about the internal workings of their bodies. It is a natural complement to Nintendo’s existing health-oriented products such as Wii Fit and Brain Training.

“This is me in the office last Friday,” Iwata says, pointing at the video. “I’m checking my relaxation levels. This can also sense whether you’re breathing in or out by the blood flow.”

A visual representation of a human silhouette fills slowly with blue water to chest level to show that Iwata is slightly stressed. “I’m thinking of E3,” he laughs.

The sound of a metronome appears, with breathing exercises.

“Now look,” he says, “how my relaxation level has changed.” The human silhouette is now slightly more full, of greener water.

"This is what I find interesting,” Iwata says. “The idea of making something that is invisible, visible is fascinating.”

A game that needs you to fill your silhouette with green water sounds like a surefire winner in anybody's home. Let's face it though - all Nintendo need to do is tie this in with Wii Fit Plus somehow and it'll sell like nobody's business. Somehow I doubt Suda51's ideas are quite the same as this.

[source technology.timesonline.co.uk]