Wearable System for Enhancing Mobility of People with Parkinson’s Disease
Brand:
Easypacer
Function(s):
Freezing of gait (FoG) is one of most important symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The characteristic is that the patients move with brief, episodic absence or marked reduction of forward progression of the feet despite they have the intention to walk. It can last for a few seconds or a longer time. In the worst case, they will fall due to physical inertia.
This project develops an intelligent wearable system to detect the FoG and provide auditory or visual cues to the people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Meanwhile it can collect and record the information of FoG for clinicians to assess the medication effect of the subjects. The application is easy to use, placing a pair of smart insoles integrated with pressure sensors and either binding laser light device on the shoes or using earphones. Once the FoG appears, either auditory or visual cues will be activated through the mobile application to simulate the patients to walk.