A new crowdfunding platform has been launched by consumer electronics giant Sony in Japan. Dubbed First Flight, the platform is designed to finance internal projects developed by Sony employees that might not fit, or be a little too esoteric, for one of its more established product lines.

First Flight forms part of Sony's Seed Acceleration Program, which aims to foster the kind of innovation that saw the company dominate the consumer electronics market back in the 1980s with products like the Walkman portable cassette player. First Flight gives employees the opportunity to seek funding from the public, rather than internal or external investors.

There are two products already available to pre-order through First Flight. The first, the FES e-ink watch, was actually already crowdfunded last year under a phantom company called Fashion Entertainments, a move that proved controversial at the time. The second is MESH, a DIY kit that allows users to turn add "smart" connectivity to a range of devices. Another product, the HUIS Remote Controller, is running as a crowdfunding campaign, which has currently reached around 20 percent of its 5 million yen (£26,000/$40,000) goal.

"Through the First Flight platform, Sony will support the launch and growth of new business ventures," the company said in a statement. "The platform will give nascent projects the opportunity to ascertain the actual needs of the market; realise a co-creation model of product development and improvement through direct dialogue with customers; and ensure timely sales operations that are also optimal for their business size."

Being able to "ascertain the actual needs of the market" is a running theme for Sony at the moment. The company used its E3 press conference to announce a Kickstarter for the development of Shenmue III, later noting that the relatively small $2 million goal was there in order to gauge whether there was enough interest from fans in order to warrant making the game in the first place.

Whether a company like Sony—which recorded an overall annual operating income of ¥68.5 billion (£356 million/$576 million) earlier this year—should be using the general public to offload the expense of generating new ideas is questionable, though. Directly engaging with customers is great, but the financial burden of R&D should always fall to company itself, particularly one of Sony's size.