Trainers, wake up! A new patent pertaining to Pokémon Sleep has surfaced, detailing the mechanics of the long rumored feature. The discovery comes as a surprise – a reddit user posted today that the “pokemonsleep.com” website was redirecting to a patent application registered with the United States Patent and Trademarks Office.
The patent is called “GAMIFICATION OF HEALTH AWARENESS BASED ON SLEEP PATTERNS”, with the applicant being The Pokémon Company, Tokyo (JP). The patent application date is November 17, 2022, which means that something is still going on with Pokémon Sleep.
The abstract paints an interesting picture on what TPC has in mind with Pokémon Sleep:
“A user breeds a virtual life form by practicing good sleep habits and stays motivated toward practicing good sleep habits while enjoying breeding the virtual life form.
A game server manages progress of a breeding game of a virtual life form, the game server including circuitry configured to acquire sleep data that at least includes a sleep pattern indicating a bedtime and a wake-up time of a user; store the acquired sleep data as a sleep history; and update the breeding game based on the sleep pattern in the sleep history.”
Contents of the so-called “Pokémon Sleep” patent
The patent itself is fairly lengthy, and it goes in depth to describe an measurement device, a storage server, and an algorithm that detects sleep quality and duration, all in service of powering a “breeding” mini-game elsewhere.
We want to note that nothing in the patent referrers directly to Pokémon GO, but it is interesting non the less.
We’ve extracted most of the helpful text from the patent application here:
Patent background
In recent years, activity measurement devices that measure actions and an amount of activity of a person using a motion detection sensor or the like that detects motions of a body have become widely used. An activity measurement device is designed to improve health awareness of a user by presenting the user with an amount of activity or the like and is desirably used on a continuous basis.
For example, PTL 1 discloses an invention that heightens a user’s awareness toward health in the process of enjoying a breeding game of a virtual life form based on measured biological data.
Solution to Problem
In order to achieve the object described above, a game server according to the present disclosure is a server that manages progress of a breeding game of a virtual life form, the game server including:
- an acquiring unit which acquires sleep data that at least includes a sleep pattern indicating a bedtime and a wake-up time of a user;
- a sleep history storage unit which stores the acquired sleep data as a sleep history;
- and a processing unit which executes processing steps related to the breeding game based on the sleep pattern in the sleep history.
The gist of the rest of the patent is that:
- The sensor unit can be comprised of any type of sensors that TPC can utilize to determine sleep duration, quality and effects on the body
- The processing unit has a CPU, and is capable of performing tasks based on the data acquired by the sensor unit
- The sleep history storage units… is a storage unit.
A lot more has been shared on the details of each of these steps, but nothing concrete in terms of what type of game is in development. We know it is a game based around getting healthy sleep, and that it is focused on sleep patterns, and good and healthy sleep.
When it comes to Pokémon Sleep, there have been promising signs in the recent times. As recently as last year, in fact, there have been several hints pointing to the development of this game not being dead, but just… well, slumbering.
Aside from that, not a lot is known at the moment. But don’t take our word for it, check it out for yourself on the USPTO website: link.
