14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has announced having released, for the moment only in Japan, a new channel for the Nintendo Wii, called the Wii Fit Body Check Channel and aiming to allow gamers to share their information with health professionals. Those joining Nintendo in the project are NEC, Panasonic and Hitachi.
Wii Fit has been a best seller for Nintendo ever since it was released, even if the game is quite pricey because it comes with the Balance Board attachment. The game allows players to engage in a variety of health related activities and also offers those interested a chance to see how their weight and BMI progress over time.
The next logical step, which Nintendo seems to have made, is to take all that data the game collects via the Balance Board and via input from the player, and to do something interesting with it. It will allow its partners to access and then send it to health professionals for the development of a “long distance health guidance” system. They can send back warnings, advice and even invite the player for a check up. Hitachi could test its program in February, while the other companies will follow soon after, with Panasonic planning to send the data to insurance companies via its system, Plissimo Sigusa, beginning with April.
It seems that the Wii Fit Body Check Channel can also take data from the Lifestyle Rhythm DS created by Nintendo. Probably the time when a fully digital doctor learns everything about a patient’s health through videogames and then provide advice via the Internet or a dedicate channel on the Wii, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 is not that far ahead of us. Let's hope they won’t give computers the power to put us on a diet.