OREANDA-NEWS. Alps Electric Co., Ltd. and Genial Light Co., Ltd. are strengthening their business alliance relating to the commercialization of physiological sensor modules.

Extending "healthy life expectancy" to allow people to enjoy good health throughout their lives has become a major challenge for Japan and other advanced nations with aging populations, an important factor being the prevention of illnesses before they occur. Disease prevention necessitates not only a higher level of health consciousness among individuals, but additionally that they notice changes to their own health and promptly seek medical attention at a healthcare center or other facility. They must also be able to instigate preventive or corrective steps on their own.

A crucial element of disease prevention is keeping track of fluctuations in physiological data ascertained through routine and accurate measurement. This is enabled by wearable devices that can be worn at all times. Such devices, especially the physiological sensors inside them, need to be compact, lightweight and perform high-precision measurement wirelessly in order to minimize the burden on the wearer.

Alps Electric and Genial Light have been exploring the potential for designing and developing technology to apply to the creation of ultra-compact, high-precision physiological sensors, specifically through fusion of the high-precision parts processing, high-density parts mounting and production technology built up by Alps Electric over the years with Genial Light's expertise, based on advanced light sensing technology, in developing medical and healthcare devices. The two companies will now strengthen their business alliance and work toward product commercialization. Alps Electric's global sales and distribution network will then be harnessed to sell the products worldwide.

Technical supervision for the product commercialization is provided by Hideo Eda Ph.D., president of Photonics Innovations Co., Ltd. (Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture).