This Smart Glove Will Speed Up Your Stroke Recovery

Had to find pictures of this somewhere else.

http://www.examiner.com/article/this-smart-glove-will-speed-up-your-stroke-recovery
Aging global population creates a significant pressure on our society. The healthcare costs are growing annually, making quality service beyond the reach of the people who need it the most. Telehealth, virtual reality and other technological innovations can help to cut the costs and free up physicians to focus on complicated issues while offering an affordable alternative for those in need of routine health monitoring. They also allow more customized approach and faster recovery process for people who hadn’t had an access to quality medicine before.
Smart Technology For Stroke Victims
According to the World Heart Federation, 15 million people per year suffer a stroke. In the U.S., every 40 seconds someone is having a stroke. It is the leading cause of disability, costing the national economy $34 billion each year and a victim’s family - $17,081.
Two of the founders of Neofect, a technology startup with offices in Seoul, Korea and San-Francisco, CA, had experienced the hardship of caring for stroke patients in their families. They decided to use their engineering and business expertise to create a more efficient system to help stroke patients regain their mobility and get back their lives.
After several years of prototyping, testing and intensive consulting with the leading physicians, Rapael Smart Glove was born.
RAPAEL Smart Glove™ is a biofeedback system which includes a glove-shaped sensor device and a software app. The sensor data is transmitted via Bluetooth from the patient’s hand, and the software creates training augmented reality games. In each game, the wearer must successfully perform a task that is related to the specific movement in order to obtain high scores. In addition, the system’s artificial intelligence adjusts the difficulty level according to the participant’s performance. Therapists can design specific rehabilitation schedules by combining the games.
The Rapael system brings gamification into rehab exercise, helping motivate patients while the app provides valuable real time information to caregivers. The device has been successfully employed by a number of hospitals in South Korea since December of 2014, and in the US and Europe since December of 2015.
New Year – New Opportunities
This year, the effectiveness of virtual reality based exercises for the health-related quality of life for stroke survivors has been proven during the study conducted by The National Rehabilitation Center in Korea. The participants who combined traditional physical therapy with daily games experienced noticeable improvements in their mobility level not only during the rehabilitation process, but also for a significant amount of time after the exercises were completed.
It opens new opportunities for wider applications of the Rapael Smart Glove system. Later this year, Neofect will introduce a consumer version for use at home, which will be available for rent for $99 a month. The patients will be able to enjoy a comfort of their home and flexible time for exercising. It will be especially beneficial when combined with telehealth, because the doctor can monitor the results on their computer, and the stroke survivor will not have to spend time and money on routine office visits.
Just moving someone’s hand won't improve that person’s condition because a large part of rehab takes place in the brain. The creators of Rapael Smart Glove believe that the system will make the rehabilitation process faster and more effective, helping millions of people to return to normal life.