Nintendo's 'Quality of Life' initiative has been in the works for years now - the first time we heard about it was way back in 2014 - but it's been a little while since we last received any new info. Today, however, it has been revealed that the Big N has applied for a new patent that's concerned with measuring health information, including a user’s sleep patterns.
The patent includes a base device which would sit in a user's home and connect to a mobile device. It has plenty of potential tricks up its sleeves, as documented in the description below courtesy of Japanese Nintendo:
The base device is installed in the user’s home where-as the mobile terminal is fully portable. The base device can also charge the mobile terminal when connected with communication between both mobile and base devices also able to be performed by a communication method via a network such as a LAN or the Internet.
A Doppler sensor is included in the base device which detects biological information such as respiration and pulse, in addition to the user’s body movement.
The base device also includes a projector that projects an image on a wall surface (including a ceiling) or a screen. Such images could be to prompt the user to fall asleep or wake up, or to display an image that shows the sleep evaluation result when the user wakes up in the morning.
Further, the base device also includes a camera, speaker, and control unit. The control unit has a CPU and a memory, and can also transmit the information detected by the Doppler sensor to the mobile terminal.
You can read up on all of Japanese Nintendo's findings here if you're interested in learning more.
The last time we heard about Nintendo's Quality of Life plans was in June last year, when the company confirmed that the initiative was still very much alive but wasn't linked to Pokémon Sleep, a mobile app announced by The Pokémon Company.
Have you been keeping tabs on Nintendo's QoL plans? We can't say we're not intrigued about what Nintendo's working on, but for all we know, any eventual product could still be years away from release.
[source j-platpat.inpit.go.jp, via japanesenintendo.com, gonintendo.com]
Comments (24)
Yes.
I never gave up hoping.
Iwata is watching over us. They should name it after him.
It should tell you to go to sleep and say 'Please understand' in Iwata's voice.
@Camo-joe Of course it's an Ipod, Nintendo uses only the best of mobile phones. Help me sleep Nintendo, I want to dream of greatness like yall always do. Let's be great together.
PS, give us dream gaming one day. I'd love to play Zelda in my dreams before I go to work.
Hello, old friend.
I m just excited for Pokémon Sleep right now.
Isn’t this patent basically what they patented a number of years ago anyway? Aren’t they just updating the patent? That’s my take on this.
Do I need it? No - unless Samus wakes me up every morning then yes I need it, very much.
"Just... why?" Thats all I have to say
Eye-less mario is interesting.
Weird...I thought this became Ring Fit.
I would think this is an app for a mobile phone. I don't see Nintendo making dedicated hardware for measuring sleep. I welcome being wrong, though.
edit: unless thats a dock for a switch, but it looks like a phone.
I really wish they actually release this. My sleep habits have been sh*t lately.
Mario: Welcome to life again, now, poop and go to school! Too bad you can't play'a my game all a'day long instead!
Also, you have'a some apnea.
@fafonio maybe don't eat before bed? :harold face:
@WoomyNNYes no current mobile phone can "project imagens in a wall or ceiling when the user wakes up".This is a stand for a mobile phone, but with many other functions. I'm... intrigued, but I'm more inclined to just use Pokémon Sleep than this
Imagine QoL hardware from nintendo, and how bad it would be. If apple and google haven't even really perfected it yet, nintendo damn sure isn't
I'm just wondering about how many of those devices they came up with on the past 6 years and how many of them will actually ever see the light of day.
This is scary as hell.
@FlyingFoxy it’s more about me working late, designing for clients and this whole pandemic situation, stress, anxiety, etc.
Nintendo have taken all this time developing a machine to make us sleep, Sony just releases a conference about upcoming tech specs.
@MrGawain https://youtu.be/6zXDo4dL7SU
Mario Is Still Missing (His Eyes)
I was afraid this interesting project had died with Iwata, but glad to hear it's still alive!
@mesome713 The iPod isn't a phone...
So, it records your sleep and projects pictures on the wall to help you sleep? Just wait for someone to hack it and show awful photos to really screw you up. No thank you
Sounds roughly like it combines various aspects of a clock radio, digital projection/mobile units that help babies sleep, and a very rudimentary health monitoring apps, such as in a smart watch/fitbit, or smart phone...
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