I've been thinking, what if the balance board and vitality sensor hint at where Nintendo is going with its next console, beyond just motions controls, what if Nintendo's next direction is to make a console that senses not just a person's movements and external actions, but also tries to sense a persons internal state to help influence the game.  For example, your health could affect the state of your game character, if you have low stamina, your character could end up etting winded easily during the game, or if you are feeling angry, the character could go berserk.

And you said Natal was lame...

Haha, games that casual gamers would be good at, but us fat unhealthy hardcore gamers would suck at.

DESTROYING GAMING!!1

Anyway, It sounds like you're right.

This wouldn't be lame like NATAL, first it would work with any existing game, not like NATAL which would probably not work with most Core games, like FPS's, it would still have something like the Wiimote in addition to the body sensor.  In addition unlike NATAL it would actually be made by Nintendo, so you'd have good software to go with it since Nitnendo tends to design their hardware to work with their games

The thing about Disruption is that it's really hard to predict what will actually work. When the Wii launched, Nintendo had no idea if motion controls were going to be a hit or not.

I think the Vitality Sensor is part of a shotgun approach to disruption. They'll release a bunch of prototypes of weird control methods, and if any of them become wildly successful (like Wii Fit) they'll get sequels (Wii Fit +) and if they don't we'll never hear from them again. And when it's time to put together the Wii's successor, it'll have all the hits from the Wii with improved hardware, and a few more crazy shotgun disruptions just for kicks.

I think your right, Nintendo under Iwata has been a company that comes out with fun, interesting, new things and sees if people like them - if they do they continue to do them.

The Balance Board was new (or atleast never before was very popular, there was actually a balance board type peripheral for the Atari 2600 which I recently found out - pretty sweet) and people seem to be liking it because it allows you the phycially effect the game with your body.

The Vitality Sensor is new for gaming and if you look past the initial "lameness" it actually has some pretty interesting implementations for core games that would be really fun (i'm hoping the Grinder uses it to determine how scared/pumped up you are to determine how many enemies to throw at you) - if it's popular with the intial games Nintendo (and hopefully others) make for it then it will get more support, if not it will die.

Nintendo does different thing than other Video Game companies but they (contrary to popular internet belief) do listen to their consumers and the market trends, they simply like to be the company influencing or starting those trends not the company solely reacting to them.

I think we are at least 20 years from what you describe.

no in 20 years we'll have mind controlled systems, or "holodeck systems"

Seems someone emailed Malstrom with a similar idea to mine:

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/email-nintendo-emotion/

Email: Nintendo eMotion?

I’ve been wondering what Nintendo’s next step will be. It seems to me the Vitality Sensor offers a bigger hint than it seems, other companies are now focusing on the paradigm Nintendo created with the Wii, of motion controls.

If they can shift the paradigm once again, they can leave both Sony and Microsoft with “yesterday” proposal in motion controls. Much like they did before. With the Wii remote Nintendo changed the focus of the experience from output to input, from escapism to engagement, and so on. Sony and Microsoft seem to be adopting only a few aspects of this idea right now.

Maybe they’ll make more experiments on it, but I’m getting the sense that Nintendo is intending to shift from external interactivity to internal next. Almost a polar opposite of motion controls and another step away from the HD twins paradigm, which would be gaming from within with a healthier focus. “eMotion” controls if you will, using your inner self to control the game, and improve your life at the same time. I imagine the Vitality Sensor is only one step, maybeBrain wave recognition could play a part later. Several years ago Miyamoto hinted that they were experimenting with a brain controller internally.

I have no idea how they would make this cool, or viable enough for gaming as a whole, to properly serve as this new paradigm. But from listening to Iwata and Miyamoto it could be a logical next step if their experiments become successful. I imagine that before progressing full force into this possible paradigm they would release a game to test it like Nintendogs/Brain Age in 2005, so it’s probably still a ways away. Maybe we’ll see the Vitality Sensor game first next year, and then something more sophisticated like the Brain controller later?

I like the way you think. You are thinking with your right brain and literally ‘letting your right brain go wild’. Obviously, the Vitality Sensor shows Nintendo is researching internal stimuli as a way to manipulate games. For all we know, Vitality Sensor could be a market test for this type of gameplay.

There is a problem using internal senses to control games: it would be very difficult to market. It is easy to show a video of someone swinging the Wii-mote, but how do you advertise internal stimuli?

Anyway, I think you are on an interesting line of thought there with your email.

I suspect that Nintendo has expanded their R&D teams which focus on HCI and given many teams free reign to come up with ideas and demos for different user interfaces to try and come up with new ways to interact with videogames ... If these teams can come up with something inexpensive enough that it can be bundled with a game, and if there is "enough to it" that it has 4 or 5 demos which can be turned into all or part of a game, I think Nintendo is willing to do market research and hint at a possible release to see if there is any interest; and if there is to release it.

It is (essentially) a form of pure research that is maintained within a company, and even if most of the ideas don't work out what a company learns from their failures can make the far more successful in the future.