Stroke Victims Relearn Vital Skills Through Gaming Inspired Gloves

The world of medicine incorporates a lot of interesting aspects in the journey to finding newer and more source-able ways to help patients. One of these aspects is technology.

But who would have known that one of the technological aspects is a gaming inspired glove that helps stroke victims rehabilitate themselves.

The glove, which is reminiscent of the Nintendo Power Glove has much more to offer to victims of stroke.

The name of the glove is Rapael Smart Glove that is a creation of Korean health tech company, Neofect.

Rapael Smart Glove incorporates motion-based game to help stroke victims regain their movement through rehabilitation.

Numerous people around the world have suffered some sort of stroke that led them to lose any control or movement on arms and hands.

Ban Ho Young, Neofect founder said that 85 percent of South Koreans suffering from stroke doesn't finish their rehabilitation.

"Just moving someone's hand in a certain way won't improve that person's condition because a large part of rehab takes place in the brain," Ban said. "We see a lot of focus on the clinical side of things and not enough on the motivational," he added.

The creation follow suit with other companies such as Limb Alive.

The Rapael Smart Glove has sensors that monitor the user's movement. These sensors can tell whether the user is bending his or her hand and whether they are flexing their fingers, which then are sent to a computer system.

It is Bluetooth-enabled that connects everything to an app.

As of right now the Rapael Smart Glove is unavailable in the United States but Neofect are already looking out to release the glove in the U.S. market soon.

The glove is quite expensive with a price tag of $10,000 but patients are able to rent the Rapael Smart Glove for $85.

As of July 2015 over 20 Rapael Smart Glove have been shipped to numerous hospitals all over South Korea and is being utilized in the rehab centers even in top institutions. 

Real Time Analytics