Student creates glove that reduces Parkinson’s tremors by 80%

A medical student has created a glove that helps patients with Parkinson’s disease maintain the firmness of their hands!

The device, called GyroGlove attempts to control the tremors which is a common symptom of the disease using gyroscopes – mechanisms not too dissimilar to those used to maintain the stability of satellites in space.

Faii Ong, the brain behind this glove is a student at the prestigious Imperial College London. After preparing several design projects, the student and some of his peers sought funding for a startup. Together with other colleagues from Imperial College, they managed to raise the funds needed to build the first  prototype.

Gyros [in this example] are small metal discs put into rotation to maintain position through the physical principle of conservation of angular momentum. A rotating object [disc] tend to remain rotating around the same axis and react to forces trying to displace it.

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The idea of using this type of mechanism came to Faii Ong after exhaustive testing of other methods – such as using rubber bands, springs, magnets and other components to control the tremors.

Reduced tremors

According to GyroGear, a startup created to develop the product, bench tests show that the special glove, called GyroGlove, was able to reduce the amplitude of tremors by 80%. This degree of efficiency would allow victims of severe cases of the disease write, use cutlery and drink coffee using the invention.

Faii Ong already won three startups contests, helped by the GyroGear. However, the company has no official date to launch its first product to market.

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The magazine Technology Review, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), says the inventor seeks to resolve some final issues associated with the product, but that GyroGlove should enter the market in September 2016 with an estimated price of between US $ 550 and $ 850 – between R $ 2,200 and R $ 3,400.