Wii Vitality Sensor pictures

5 June 2009

Posted by:Josh

Nintendo Wii Vitality Sensor
Nintendo made a surprising and totally random announcement at their E3 2009 Nintendo Press Conference. That announcement was a Wii Vitality Sensor, a device that plugs directly into the bottom port of the Wii Remote. The device itself is small and reads your pulse when you stick your finger in it.

Nintendo talked extensively about the upcoming peripheral and how it could be used to sense a player’s pulse and stress levels. They then indicated that this could lead them on the path of “relaxation games” similar to yoga. In addition to sensing the pulse of a person, Nintendo stated that Vitality Sensor also shows “a number of other signals being transmitted by their [the user] bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world.”

The body’s inner world, eh? Sounds intriguing to me!

No games or further details on the device were announced or shown, but they did say it was the “future of Nintendo” and you can be sure that Miyamoto is coming up with some crazy never-before-seen idea that will use it. And show us our “inner body world”.

You can see Nintendo talk about the device in this video from E3 2009.

Categories: News, Wii News

http://www.videogamesblogger.com Ferry

This is EXACTLY the same sensor that was released back in 1998, eleven years ago! Back then I imported Tetris 64 from Japan for my import N64 console and it came with what was called a Bio Sensor from SETA. I think they manufactured it, but if it’s an official N64 accessory Nintendo might’ve been involved too.

It measured your heart rate (you plug it in to the N64 controller and hook it up to your ear lobe) and as you play your stress will affect gameplay. So when things got hard in a Tetris level, your heart rate would go up (displayed on-screen as a heart beating faster from red into a blue color), and as a reaction the game would slow the gameplay speed down; giving you time to get out of a difficult situation. When you had it easy, it would do the reverse, speed up the dropping of Tetris blocks (Tetrominoes?).

It was really fun too, but my ear would start hurting after a while because of the tight clip at the end of the Bio Sensor. Still, Tetris 64 was really fun because of it. It even had a 4-player versus mode.
Sean

Obviously it’s not “exactly” the same. The technology has been improved implemented into the wii. The one 11 years ago was for N64, so your comment is completely pointless.
http://www.videogamesblogger.com Ferry

@Sean: Is it really? If you leave out improved software, what new data would an improved sensor read that would be useful info? Aside from your pulse, I mean.

OK so I just read what’s in the hardware. Like in hospitals it has a pulse oximeter measuring the oxygen saturation of your blood. How Nintendo will tie that in with relaxation games I haven’t the slightest idea, since I don’t know how that can be changed without applying extra oxygen like athletes do on high altitude.
morgan

they could use it as a lie detector