The bar for this is set impossibly low; 'improve mobility'; rather than recover lost movements. Until stroke survivors demand 100% recovery we get baby steps like this. I consider this a complete failure, back to the drawing board.
Sony gamifies home rehab with new medical venture
Smartphone app guides users through stroke recovery with help from AI
SapplyM, a 51-49 joint venture between medical portal operator M3 and Sony, on Tuesday launched a service to help people recover their mobility after experiencing a stroke. The smartphone app lets users train at their own pace following exercises that meet their needs, enlisting artificial intelligence to gauge how well the patient is moving.
The service draws upon posture and motion analysis technology used by Sony in robots, together with experience gained from more than 100,000 rehab cases from M3 subsidiary Y's.
SapplyM also plans to provide remote training with physical therapists, as well as paid services along with its current free option. Other offerings in the works include home cardiac rehab using wearable devices and a service encouraging older people to walk more to avoid frailty.
"Medical care in outlying areas and at home is becoming more important as our society ages," Yoichi Katayama, a senior director at M3, said during a virtual news conference, adding that "we'll contribute by helping people have fun" with medical services like rehab.
"We will work with various partners to provide safety, health and peace of mind," said Toshimoto Mitomo, Sony's executive vice president in charge of business incubation.
The Sony Group once had an unwritten rule against involving itself in products that could seriously affect people's lives, but its stance has shifted over the past several years.
In addition to its foray into electric vehicles, the company has been developing medical devices such as endoscopes through a joint venture with Olympus. In 2016, Sony acquired Belgium-based eSaturnus, which provides video technology for operating rooms.
The group mostly classifies its medical equipment and health operations in the "other" category of its electronics products and solutions segment. Sony reported 182.6 billion yen ($1.42 billion at current rates) in sales in this area for fiscal 2020, a fraction of its estimated total fiscal 2021 sales of 9.9 trillion yen. But it has high hopes for its health business as a future profit center
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