I have a new Wii Fit!!!   Nope, I’m not going to post a video of me hula hooping so you are safe on that one. I’m not even going to post pictures of my graphs.

Lots of things suck about the Wii Fit game.  You can’t string together activities so you waste a minute or two between each activity. You can’t share your data on the internet so you can’t compete with your friends.  But I assume they will fix these problems and charge me another $39.95 to get a new version.

The board itself works remarkably well.  It's amazing how it can tell where my body is and it's cool to have visual feedback on my balance as I do the yoga poses.  

So what do I see for the future based on the Wii Fit?

Medical Apps
Wii Fit makes it easy to imagine Wii Medical or Wii Diabetic.  We have done some work with websites about Diabetes.  It is easy to imagine a blood sugar, blood pressure meter that you could plug in to the control, just like you do the nunchuk. The data, including how you are doing on your exercises, could then be screened and summarized for the health care team.  Diabetes is always an interesting example for technology in health care because of the enormous costs of uncontrolled diabetes and the enormous potential for saving health insurance and government money if diabetics follow medical advice.

Another medical application is having your physical therapist program a series of exercises for you, then be able to review how you have done with them at your next appointment.

My Virtual Family
One cute thing that Wii does is each person in the family makes their own “Mii” avatar.  What I love is that when I’m doing the Hula Hoop game its my husband and son’s Mii’s that are throwing me Hula Hoops.  I am actually surprised at how much that small personalization continues to warm me.  

Another wish list item is a Facebook app (insert your favorite open social network here) that populates my Wii with my friends’ Mii’s.  Maybe they could tell me their latest Twits as I switch between exercises. :)