Wii Balance Board: decent for measuring equilibrium, medical study says

This one's pretty cute (or evidence of a completely uncreative healthcare industry). Researchers at the University of Melbourne and Singapore General Hospital's Department of Physiotherapy have run a battery of tests on the Wii's Balance Board, and found it to be somewhat useful in testing patient's balance and equilibrium, medically speaking. Current medical equipment used to test these skills is very expensive, heavy, and in short supply. The Balance Board, on the other hand, runs about $99. The Wii accessory was tested on 30 patients, and found to be about as good as the expensive force platforms usually used by doctors... which is great news for Nintendo -- this product has seemingly endless real-life applications -- but rather embarrassing for the makers of medical equipment, no? Hit the source link for a fuller look at the story.

[apairofdocs Posted Jan 19th 2010 7:48PM]

Not embarrassing, annoying because now they can't make as huge of a profit.

[sinai Posted Jan 20th 2010 12:24AM]

@apairofdocs

d'oh

[sinai Posted Jan 19th 2010 7:50PM]

no one's being embarrassed, you make medical equipment because the margins are crazy insane.

[Raffi256 Posted Jan 19th 2010 7:54PM]

Wii Fit is good for posture and balance, but for atheletics or strength training it's joke, maybe creates some interest for people but that's about it.

[Metayoshi Posted Jan 19th 2010 8:45PM]

@Raffi256
Ironic... I see Wii Fit as the exact opposite of what you said. I use Wii Fit occasionally since I work long hours during the day, and I use the 30-minute jogging in place activity, the push up challenge, and the jackknife challenge with success. The balancing games and Yoga are a bit inaccurate and pretty boring.

[gp Posted Jan 19th 2010 7:56PM]

Any word of the outcome of the "Coneheads on Balance Board" experiment yet?

[shazam Posted Jan 19th 2010 7:57PM]

benefits of true mass production that you usually don't get in the medical supply market. this might suck for the companies that will have to compete with the balance board now.

[ArhcAngel Posted Jan 20th 2010 9:45AM]

@shazam

Unless Nintendo intends on spending the millions it takes to certify an electronic device for "official" medical use I don't think those companies need to worry just yet. I worked for a medical electronics company for 7 years and the testing and retesting and retesting again to achieve FDA approval is grueling. It's also the reason why an FDA certified device is prohibitively expensive compared to a similar device with no such certification.

[Jvalen Posted Jan 19th 2010 8:05PM]

all i wanna know is where those socks

[djad Posted Jan 19th 2010 8:07PM]

Where can I get me some of them sexy socks!!

[htd Posted Jan 19th 2010 8:35PM]

$80 at costco with wii fit game? I wonder if the new healthcare wants to charge the medical device tax on nintendo for this.

[htd Posted Jan 19th 2010 8:36PM]

@Jvalen
@djad

I've seen those socks are bestbuy at least, as wii fit accessories.

[ECostaB Posted Jan 19th 2010 8:54PM]

Interesting fact: the medical equipment it's competing against costs $17885. http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=6607

[Floppy Posted Jan 19th 2010 8:58PM]

That picture gave me vertigo.

[Deyanimay Posted Jan 19th 2010 10:07PM]

@Floppy I found it quite disorienting as well.

[magallanes Posted Jan 20th 2010 7:43AM]

@Floppy

me too.

[Robot Overlord Posted Jan 19th 2010 9:22PM]

what ever happened to ryan block's review of the wii fit?

[ummhello Posted Jan 19th 2010 10:36PM]

@Robot Overlord
I know right? C'mon Engadget, this is the perfect tie-in to see how much weight Ryan lost over the last year....

[nowayman Posted Jan 19th 2010 9:35PM]

How much is this weight machine? It looks cool!

[satish Posted Jan 19th 2010 9:46PM]

those are the feet of great ryan block! bow to them!

[vvtopkar Posted Jan 19th 2010 9:46PM]

Hold on, are those Wii Fit SOCKS?

[SmartFah Posted Jan 19th 2010 10:09PM]

That's crazy, this along with the Wii Vitality Sensor, we'll start seeing Nintendo in every hospital. Maybe we can get Pres Obama to allow the Wii to be paid for with our health insurance under his new health care reform. I mean if people can buy weed for medicinal purposes I should be able to buy a Wii for medical purposes, LOL.

[onlymyrailgun Posted Jan 20th 2010 4:37AM]

@SmartFah
You got wii'd!!

[DeFlanko Posted Jan 19th 2010 10:38PM]

What's next ps3eye for cisco teleconference?

[FADE Posted Jan 20th 2010 2:34AM]

All that medical stuff also has to be very sturdy and reliable. I don't think a medical board would be taken seriously if they voted to use wii balance boards instead of something else. It would be interesting though.

[onlymyrailgun Posted Jan 20th 2010 4:40AM]

They say war is the mother of technology, but it's nice to see the gaming industry making strides in innovation, leading to applications in other fields. Less war, more games!!

[Hobsie Posted Jan 20th 2010 4:48AM]

Those socks in the picture are the BEST socks ever! No seriously! I got a few pairs at Leipzig 2007 and they're amazing!

*What? Don't look at me like that!*

[magallanes Posted Jan 20th 2010 7:45AM]

say hello for a el-cheapo drunk test.

[Ethan Posted Jan 20th 2010 12:35PM]

Medical everything is overpriced.

[mykhal Posted Jan 20th 2010 3:45PM]

very nice carpet!