Technology can do some amazing things. From being able to help people overcome paralysis to even helping doctors prepare for surgery on babies. Technology can be used for some amazing purposes, Faii Ong realised this when he was decided to create a glove to help people with Parkinson’s.
Ong was a 24-year old medical student in London when he was assigned to care for a 103-year-old who suffered from Parkinson’s. When he asked if there was anything to help them with the shakes that often come from Parkinson’s he was told that “there’s nothing”. This was an answer he did not accept and Ong looked everywhere to find a way to help patients with everyday movement.
The answer he found was actually in one of his childhood toys, a mechanical gyroscope. He explained that they work “like spinning tops; they always try to stay upright by conserving angular momentum”. Working together with Imperial College London students he worked in creating a prototype, now titled GyroGlove. The wearable is said to be like placing your hand in thick syrup, resulting in movement that was slowed but not impaired.
With a gyroscope attached to the back of the glove, the noise and size of the device are the first hurdles for what could otherwise be an amazing piece of technology. “GyroGlove will make everyday tasks such as using a computer, writing, cooking and driving possible for sufferers”, stated Helen Matthews of the cure Parkinsons Trust.
Ong doesn’t want to stop there with just the glove. He hopes that after the GyroGlove they can begin to address tremors in other areas of the body, such as the legs. He also see’s a future for the device in areas where you may need steady hands, such as when taking pictures or even during surgery.
