Strengthen your inner muscles to prevent stiff shoulders and lower back pain! - Fujitsu's high-precision skeletal recognition AI x the latest training machine -

Hello! This is the Fujitsu Public Relations note editorial department.

Amidst the growing health consciousness in recent years, one of the most important elements is "exercise."
While there are many types of exercise, did you know that strengthening the muscles inside your body, or "inner muscles," can provide many benefits?

In this article, we will introduce an initiative at Todoroki Arena where you can experience cutting-edge training machines that incorporate a data analysis platform that digitizes human movement using world-leading, high-precision skeletal analysis technology cultivated by Fujitsu through gymnastics,Human Motion Analytics(hereinafter referred to as HMA), and experience health promotion firsthand!

Can chronic lower back and shoulder pain be improved with HMA x HiTREX?!

In recent years, many people suffer from lower back pain and stiff shoulders, and injury prevention is also an important issue for athletes. Helping to solve these worries and challenges is the inner muscle training machineHuman Motion Analyticsequipped with Fujitsu's high-precision skeletal recognition technology, from H&W Support Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as H&W), calledHiTREX.

Actual experience (video)

Perform about 5 to 10 minutes of training following the instructor's video. By measuring the range of motion of the shoulder and hip joints before and after training with HMA, the training effect can be seen in numerical values. The video features U-san, a high school student living in Kawasaki who participated in the experience this time.

HiTREX is a training machine that allows anyone to reliably improve and enhance the function of their "inner muscles" (deep muscles around the hip joints, shoulder joints, and spine) by sitting on a seat equipped with a monitor and training while linking the lower and upper body. By attaching a band suspended from the top to your wrists, you can exercise while appropriately distributing force so that excessive tension does not occur around the shoulders. This machine is connected to the internet and identifies the user with a camera. Furthermore, it links with a markerless motion capture system that utilizes Fujitsu's skeletal recognition technology (Human Motion Analytics) to analyze the user's movements.

*Human Motion Analytics Platform:A service that allows the use of HMA via a WEB API (provided by G-Search Limited)

With the conventional HiTREX, the effects of training with this equipment could only be felt through sensation. By implementing the HMA API this time, it has become possible to visualize the effects by analyzing images captured by the camera installed at the top of the HiTREX on the cloud, measuring the opening of the shoulder joints and hip joints before and after the user's training as "data." In addition, HiTREX has a function that can recognize users without registering IDs or passwords by using facial recognition, and users can check how their past measurement data has improved each time they train.

Furthermore, in the post-session survey, 95% of people answered that they "would like to use this machine again," and more than half cited "because I can understand the training effects through data, making it easier to feel the results" as the reason.It can be seen that the inclusion of HMA contributes to further visualization of training effects and improvement of user motivation.

For lower body training, you mainly perform a movement called external rotation of the hip joint. This is a movement similar to a sumo wrestler's shiko stomp. This movement is very effective for training the muscles around the buttocks (external rotator muscles) and is highly expected to improve lower back pain.

Upper body training works on the shoulder joints, shoulder blades, shoulder area, and upper arm muscles, which are difficult to affect with normal training. Not only is it for young people who want to train their shoulder blades to create good posture, but many voices have also been received from users at day service centers and nursing homes saying that their shoulder pain has disappeared.

Fujitsu and H&W Support areholding experience sessions for citizens at Todoroki Arena from February 18 to March 23, 2025, so please come and experience it! People other than Kawasaki citizens can also participate.

The trigger for the collaboration was Fujitsu's startup partnership program

The collaboration between Fujitsu and H&W Support was born fromFUJITSU ACCELERATOR, which isFujitsu's collaboration program with startups. By utilizing Fujitsu's digital technology and the framework of startup collaboration, we aim tocontribute to the well-being of citizens.

H&W Support Co., Ltd.
Comments from Representative Director Yo Kishi

What I am aiming for is to create an "exercise environment where you can truly achieve health." HiTREX is a training device developed for that purpose, and by improving the quality of exercise, it supports connecting each individual's "effort" in exercise to the concrete "result" of realizing well-being.

By applying to Fujitsu's FUJITSU ACCELERATOR program, I was able to experience cutting-edge markerless motion capture technology and analyze the range of motion of the hip and shoulder joints, which I value most as an exercise instructor, with high precision. This has allowed me to further expand the possibilities of HiTREX, and I feel that the accuracy of motion analysis and the scope of data utilization have further broadened.
Moving forward, together with Fujitsu, we will continue to provide a system to society that allows more people to effectively improve their health and realize well-being. And we aim to establish a new standard for exercise habits based on data.

Contributing to people's well-being, starting from Kawasaki, the birthplace of our company

Fujitsu relocated its headquarters to the Fujitsu Technology Park (Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki City) in April 2024. Kawasaki is the birthplace of Fujitsu and serves as a base of operations for many employees. Utilizing technology to contribute to the well-being of citizens is one of the important activities for realizing Fujitsu's purpose.

In addition, since April 2023, Fujitsu has been participating in the business by co-investing with Kawasaki Frontale, Tokyu Corporation, and six other companies in "Kawasaki Todoroki Park Co., Ltd. (KTP)," which is responsible for the reorganization, development, and operation of Todoroki Ryokuchi. This trial session, held at "Todoroki Arena," which KTP operates under contract from Kawasaki City, is part of a joint effort by Fujitsu and KTP to contribute to the citizens. Through this trial session, we hope to provide citizens with an opportunity to experience Fujitsu's latest technology.

Future Outlook

Fujitsu will continue to contribute to making Todoroki Ryokuchi a "place citizens can be proud of" through our business model based on social issues, "Fujitsu Uvance," and our latest technology. At the same time, we will continue to contribute to improving people's well-being by utilizing technology while gathering direct feedback and thoughts from citizens and reflecting them in the improvement of our technologies and services. We are planning another trial session utilizing HMA in May, so please look forward to it.

Comments from Fujitsu Representatives
Fujitsu Limited
Strategic Alliance Division, Atsushi Kasugai
CEO Office, Mitsutaka Sakaguchi

During this time, while communicating directly with the users, we received comments such as, "I feel the improvement effect on my physical ailments, such as stiff shoulders and lower back pain." We are happy to realize that we are contributing to the improvement of citizens' well-being through Fujitsu's technology and the location of Todoroki Ryokuchi.

In the FUJITSU ACCELERATOR program that sparked this, we are working on solving common social issues in the form of "Open Innovation 2.0," where we cooperate by bringing together each other's strengths with partners in various ecosystems, such as startups, industry, academia, and government. We would like to continue creating new businesses and value through innovation in various themes, such as realizing everyone's health and well-being, and sustainable manufacturing that considers the environment and people. If you have any thoughts like "I want to work with Fujitsu" or "I want to solve this issue," we would be happy if you could reach out to FUJITSU ACCELERATOR.

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