There has been a lot of talk about the Nintendo Switch 2, a gaming console that Nintendo may release in the next few years to compete with the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.

The console is expected to be the first of its kind in the world, and it is expected to be the first of its kind in the United States.

Whatever console Nintendo tackles next, it may also want to release a smartphone-like health tracker that can monitor sleep, record vitals, assess emotional states, and even make a room smell better.

Nintendo of Japan reported on the patent application for this strange device, and even provided a translation of key aspects of the 61-page document. The application, filed by Nintendo in September 2019, describes a portable mobile device that plugs into a docking base in the user's home, quite unlike the Switch.

The mobile device tracks user activity throughout the day and also includes environmental sensors, a camera, and a microphone to help assess the user's emotional state. The docking station is the more interesting part: in addition to an image projector, camera, speakers, and environmental sensors, it has Doppler sensors to monitor the user's breathing rate and pulse, and perhaps even a "scent generator."

Nintendo has not come up with a specific name for the device, but its functionality is relatively easy to understand. Nintendo hopes to create a health tracking device that can monitor more than steps and heart rate. Between the handheld device and the base station, Nintendo hopes to be able to monitor both your physical and mental health and take steps to improve the latter in particular.

Nintendo spends a lot of time in the application talking about the device's sleep tracking potential. The docking station could track sleep duration, time spent in bed without sleeping, whether sleep is shallow or deep, how often the user wakes up, and even the degree of snoring. The docking station's projector can also display images to help people fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning.

It wouldn't be a Nintendo system without games, and Nintendo has suggested that the games involved here might play like a ring-fit adventure. The game (which may or may not feature Mario or Bowser - the application images are not necessarily representative of the final product) will use the user's health information to advance the game, but play is not entirely passive. There will also be quizzes and puzzles to assess the user's mental alertness.

It is worth pointing out that this device is separate from Pokémon Sleep (a mobile game that plans to use Pokémon GO technology to monitor users' sleep patterns). Furthermore, as with other patent applications, this is not a product that Nintendo is guaranteed to make. It is simply something that Nintendo does not want another company to make first.

It remains to be seen if Nintendo plans to integrate this device with a potential Switch 2. After all, the Ring Fit Adventure was one of the surprise breakout hits of the current Switch, and it seems that this technology is not entirely dissimilar.