This was posted a while back but it is getting more attention.
Smart Glasses Can Improve Gait of Parkinson’s Patients
A new app for intelligent glasses, such as Google Glass, will soon make it possible to improve the gait of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and to decrease their risk of falling. Researchers at the University of Twente’s MIRA Institute have received a grant from the NutsOhra fund for the development of the app.
The gait of Parkinson’s patients is often disturbed: sometimes this presents as a shuffling movement with the patient taking small steps, or it may result in the patient constantly looking for additional support. Gait disturbance also increases the chance of a fall, despite the progress made in terms of medication. Researchers have established that the gait of patients improves when they regularly see or hear a pattern. Examples might include stripes on the floor, or the regular ticking of a metronome.
Researchers are developing a new app which will be compatible with ‘smart glasses’. The app is designed to help improve the gait and reduce the possibility of falling for Parkinson’s disease patients.
The researchers, working under the leadership of Prof. Richard van Wezel, who is professor of Neurophysiology at the UT and is also attached to the Donders Institute in Nijmegen, are now looking at exploring the possibility of using the intelligent glasses, such as Google Glass, that are now coming on to the consumer market.
Intelligent glasses would be able to provide patients with the regular visual or audible patterns required. These patterns may take the form of moving stripes or shapes which the patient sees through the glasses, flashing shapes, or music with varying tempos. The latest intelligent glasses already have inbuilt cameras and accelerometers. By using these, it will be possible to determine which approach works best for each individual patient.
Notes about this technology and Parkinson’s disease research
The MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine is working on the project together with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (Nijmegen), the Medisch Spectrum Twente hospital and the VUmc University Medical Centre in Amsterdam.
“Fonds NutsOhra”, a fund that provides financial support for healthcare projects, has granted the sum of € 94,000 to the project.
Contact: Wiebe van der Veen – University of Twente
Source: University of Twente press release
Image Source: The image is credited to the University of Twente and is adapted from the press release.
Source: University of Twente press release
Image Source: The image is credited to the University of Twente and is adapted from the press release.
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