South Korean startup NEOFECT Co. recently introduced RAPAEL Smart Glove, a virtual reality (VR)-based hand rehabilitation therapy solution enabling patients to carry out muscle strengthening exercises at home.

“It is our goal to help patients who need rehab therapy to perform training not only at hospital but also at home in an easy and fun manner,” said Ban Ho-young, CEO of NEOFECT Co., a start-up that develops a solution dedicated to rehab training, during a recent interview with Maeil Business Newspaper. “That’s why we have developed RAPAEL Smart Glove.”

NEOFECT recently developed the VR-based and glove-shaped rehab training device RAPAEL Smart Glove and game software working in sync with the glove.

NEOFECT’s smart rehab solution encompasses both software and hardware. A patient plays a game on a separate monitor by wearing a sensor-laden Smart Glove. RAPAEL Rehab Solution provides various kinds of motion tasks with entertainment such as fruit-cutting, orange-squeezing and fish-catching on the screen, and these tasks are designed to encourage the patient to move muscles and joints naturally as part of rehab exercise.

The company is updating the rehab-exercise game software on a monthly basis. Patients can choose a program considering their preference and the optimal level of difficulty as they play to balance challenge and motivation.

A hand rehab training system like Smart Glove represents a blue ocean opportunity because there are few rival products. Ban said “There are Israeli products but they are not available in Korea. Our Smart Glove costs 10 million won ($8,700), while Israeli products cost some 20 million won.”

Ban said the company aims to enter business-to-consumer (B2C) rental market for Smart Glove in the U.S. and Korea next year upon response to the device in local hospitals.

By Lee Young-wook

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