Sony's new alliance with scandal-tarnished Olympus will focus on producing endoscopes and other surgical tools packed with the Japanese electronic maker's three-dimensional imaging and super-clear "4K" display technologies.

Sony's new alliance with scandal-tarnished Olympus will focus on producing endoscopes and other surgical tools packed with the Japanese electronic maker's three-dimensional imaging and super-clear "4K" display technologies.

Sony Corp. President Kazuo Hirai said it's not clear when the alliance's first products will become available. He acknowledged that medical equipment requires special regulatory approval that will take longer and be a learning curve for Sony whose expertise is in gadgets and movies.

"This is a challenge in a new sector," Hirai told reporters at the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce in a joint press conference with Olympus Corp. President Hiroyuki Sasa. "There was a lot of talk on whether we could go at it alone."

But Sony decided it couldn't and felt that risks could be lowered if the two Japanese companies joined forces in the effort to turn medical equipment into one of the pillars of Sony's sprawling business, Hirai said.

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