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Nintendo: Wii Vitality Sensor is not yet understood

Posted Jul 10, 2009 at 6:11AM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: Wii Tags: Nintendo, Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime, Wiimote

Wii Vitality Sensor - Image 1

The Wii Vitality Sensor announcement was definitely one of the more "Huh?" moments at E3 2009. While its function as a heart-rate monitor wasn't hard to understand, a lot of people were left wondering how it would be implemented in games other than, say, fitness titles. Says Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, gamers will see the light once software is rolled out.

In an interview with Fast Company's N'gai Croal, Fils-Aime likens the skepticism surrounding the Vitality Sensor to the Nintendo DS and Wiimote's first appearances.

"How is this going to work, how is it going to work with the games that I want to play--I don't get it. Now I'm hearing something similar for the Wii Vitality Sensor," says Fils-Aime. "And all I can tell you is, with the game developers that we have, we will bring forth an experience that you will say, 'Wow, I get it.'

Until you have that software, it's tough to understand. If I told you that you would be standing on an oversized bathroom scale, and having fun doing it, you probably would have said, "Reggie, I don't get it." And yet here we are with the balance board arguably as the third largest development platform across the globe."

It's worth noting that a similar device already appeared on a Nintendo console more than ten years ago, although it didn't really become a hit. Nintendo's current main target demographic -- gamers they call "new core" -- may be more open to the Vitality Sensor however.

Wii Vitality Sensor: not only for pulse rates, also for lie detection

Via Fast Company

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Sure, when I first saw it I was thinking the same thing everyone was thinking. How the hell will that work outside of Wii Fit-style games?

Though since then, I've remembered that studies have been done on behaviours and moods during a gaming session and they've all used heart-rate monitors as part of their observations. A simple example is Tetris. As the blocks pile closer to the top, your heartrate does go up ever so slightly, but it's enough for the sensor to detect a drastic change. Same goes when you're approaching an opponent in an online shooter like Halo and are close enough to use the melee attack.

Using that information, a game could automatically change the difficulty settings if it can tell if you're too stressed or not stressed enough, or change the atmosphere to match your mood. I could totally see a room in something like Eternal Darkness that changes it's atmosphere depending on your mood.

# smash hits — Orlyeh 2009-07-10 17:38

Still waiting on the Wiimote to revolutionize gaming.

# uh.... — hypercoyote360 2009-07-10 19:04

Well, I guess it depends on your definition of revolutionize, but I know this, I can't stand to play a FPS on anything besides the wii, which sucks since the wii's graphics are last-gen. But nothing beats the wiimote in my book.

# The clip... — hypercoyote360 2009-07-10 19:08

My thought is, the clip looks too bulky to be used casually...I can't see myself playing some game with that huge thing stuck on my finger. Plus it uses up the extension port (I assume) so you can't use the nunchuk with it.

# .... — Silver-Tiger 2009-07-11 00:50

maybe they don't understand it themselves?

All they know that everybody will buy it just because the name "Nintendo" is on it.

# FPS games — Orlyeh 2009-07-11 02:05

I've heard this argument before, and I don't buy it. FPS gameplay CAN and HAS been modelled around the limitations of the controllers used. By slowing down the action, developers have been able to successfully utilize and compensate for the lack of a controller's precision and speed compared to a mouse.

No, you'll probably never really play UT on a console like it's meant to be played, but CoD4 was a joy to play, control-wise.

If the Wiimote WAS so revolutionary for FPS games on the Wii, there would be tons of them as fans of the genre would flock to these games in record numbers.

# Haha — Nohbody 2009-07-11 08:19

good thing i read your post first because i was about to bring up enternal darkness. Yeah instead of sanity meters and stuff you have your own RL vitality. When you walk into places, depending on your vitality, the game can alter itself on the fly.

# dang~ — genesiscopy 2009-07-11 23:03

now the feds have to come up with better devices since people are being trained on how to cheat in a polygraph test..

# Two words — Project D 2009-07-13 20:18

Survival. Horror.

The first time a creep shows up in Silent Hill, my character has a heart attack and drops dead on the spot. Frigging love it.

# WTF!?!?!?!?! — ISOHaven 2009-07-14 04:28

That's awesome! I see a lot of potential. Just need some creative devs to turn it into something fun.

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