Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata

Nintendo Co. Ltd. first got people up and moving with Wii Sports and Wii Fit, and now the 125-year-old Japanese entertainment company wants to make sure people are sleeping well too.

Nintendo is teaming up with medical technology company ResMed to develop a sleep monitor designed to help fight sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder involving difficulty breathing during sleep that can result in fatigue and, in some extreme cases, death.

Nintendo’s device is similar in concept to a product ResMed already makes called the S+. Nintendo’s product will monitor users’ sleep cycles to check for any irregularities that may indicate sleep apnea.

Nintendo’s sleep monitor is designed to be simple and easy to use, with the user being almost completely unaware of the device’s presence. The device will be non-wearable and non-contact.

Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata said:

Despite a huge potential market, there are no decisive products because all solutions so far required user effort, which made continuing difficult. You simply put our QOL sensor next to the bed and that’s it.

In a corporate policy briefing yesterday, Iwata outlined five key factors that make “quality of life” devices such as this unobtrusive increase the chance that people will continue to use them.

According to Iwata, the devices should be:

• Non-wearable—Wearable devices can be uncomfortable or forgotten at home
• Non-contact— Iwata: “Few people appear to enjoy having unusual objects attached to their bodies while sleeping”
• Non-operating—The device should work without effort
• Non-waiting—The device should not require the user to wait for results
• Non-installation efforts—The device should require no installation

Iwata hopes the sleep monitor will be the first of many quality of life improvements Nintendo can provide people. Iwata said: “We have redefined entertainment as something that ‘improves people’s QOL in enjoyable ways’ and aim to broaden our business fields.”

While it might not eliminate the need for doctor-monitored sleep studies, Nintendo’s sleep monitor may serve as an early warning that there might be a problem.