Girl develops wearable to help Parkinson’s disease patients

Attis, a project named after the Greek god of vegetation and in honour of her grandfather who liked to garden, consists of a wearable that helps people with Parkinson’s disease and tremors.

It consists of a wristband with cell phone buzzers connected to a battery and control module, which uses the principle of distraction.

Anne got this idea from the film The King’s Speech, which told the story about King George, who had a speech impairment and used music to get his mind off the stammering.

“I thought if I could apply the principle of distraction to the human brain and to the hand, I could stop the involuntary tremors that the brain would send to the hand”, she explained.

The student built the device by attaching several coin cell motors (the little vibrators found in cellphones to create a buzzing noise) to the underside of an elasticised wristband. She attached a transformer to the top of the band used to increase and decrease the intensity of the vibration.

Anne tested the gadget on three patients and it proved to be effective in simple things like writing and holding a cup and saucer.

This invention allowed the girl to earn her more than $3,000 in scholarships and prize money by taking second-place Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair in Hamilton, Canada and first-place at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2KTq0gf
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