[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] "Starting with Phantom Rovo, we will grow beyond the massage chair domain into a home healthcare platform."
On the 6th, at the 'Phantom Rovo' launch press conference held at Bodyfriend Dogok Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Jiseonggyu, Vice Chairman of Bodyfriend, stated, "Our ultimate goal at Bodyfriend is to provide personalized health services by comfortably receiving massages at home, measuring various biometric information, and analyzing it with artificial intelligence (AI)."
The 'Phantom Rovo' launched by Bodyfriend on this day is the first step toward the home healthcare platform that Vice Chairman Ji presented as a future vision. Symbolizing this step, the two legs of the Phantom Rovo massage chair move independently up and down. This is a method not attempted in existing massage chairs. Its appearance even resembles Iron Man's robot suit.
Vice Chairman Ji explained, "While existing massage chairs were passive, where you just let your body be massaged, Phantom Rovo moves its two legs to provide an engaging massage using movements inspired by yoga, Pilates, and cycling," adding, "Because it actively moves the body and stimulates areas that were hard to reach before, it is closer to a massage performed by a real person."
About 5 billion KRW was invested solely in research and development for Phantom Rovo, and its ergonomic effects were thoroughly verified at the Bodyfriend Medical Research & Development (R&D) Center. The center's research team includes specialists in orthopedics, neurology, rehabilitation medicine, and Korean rehabilitation medicine. They developed various modes such as psoas muscle relaxation, hamstring relaxation, cycling, and rolling stretching, enabling massage of muscles that were previously difficult to stimulate. Dr. Suhyun Jo, Head of Bodyfriend Medical R&D Center and an orthopedic specialist, said, "Phantom Rovo organically combines exercise functions with massage functions in a massage chair," and confidently added, "Now, people will not just sit on massage chairs but will 'play' with them."
Phantom Rovo also thoroughly prepared for potential safety accidents that could occur during the movement of its two legs. While existing massage chairs had only five safety sensors, Phantom Rovo is equipped with 15 safety sensors, including on the lower and rear parts of the legs, areas not visible to the eye. It features a 'power outage protection button' that returns the position to its original state with a single button if power supply is cut off during operation, as well as a low-temperature burn prevention function. Firmware updates can also be easily and conveniently performed via WiFi.
Vice Chairman Ji emphasized, "Phantom Rovo will soon establish itself as the global standard in the massage chair market," and added, "In the future, we plan to provide more advanced healthcare services by enabling the collection and analysis of users' biometric and medical big data through massage chairs."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
