Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Liftware Spoon help with Parkinson tremors using smart tech

Liftware Spoon uses headphone noise cancellation tech to stabilize Parkinson tremors


Lift Labs is a company made up of an extremely talented group of people who are working to create new technologies for social benefits and have designed a spoon for people living with Parkinson disease.


Many people living with Parkinson disease suffer from essential tremors. The act of chewing and swallowing is a challenge for them.  One of the ways to minimise the need to chew is blending up the food.


Liftware Spoon was made by Lift Lab to help people with the disease bring the spoon to their mouth without spilling. The spoon-patented technology actually stabilizes tremors in people with Parkinson essential tremor and related disorders.


Lifeware Spoon tremor_tech-PING


The Liftware spoon counteracts the tremors people can experience in their hands and help prevents spills, by using the “active cancellation of tremor” technology.


The idea behind Lift Lab is active cancellation. This uses the headphones current noise-cancelation which stabilizes large-scale motion according to Anupam Pathak, founder and CEO of Lift Lab.


Pathak said in a statement that he: “figured out how to make the hardware for active cancellation of human tremor very small and realized that this would be the perfect application for active cancellation technology.” This was done while he was doing his Ph.D. on new materials that can be used to active cancellation in the military.


LifeWare Spoon Tremor Test



An embedded computer takes the motion signals detected by the sensors to constantly steady Liftware spoon. The computer identifies the user’s tremors and then moves the spoon in the opposite direction of that tremor.  Lifeware spoon lab testing showed a more than 70% reduction in tremors reposts Lift Lab.


Many existing utensils such as plates, mugs bibs {crumb catcher} have been created to focus on ergonomics and extra hand and finger holds.  That were made using pretty old technology but liftware spoon is the cleverest utensil on the market to help people with tremors eat with pride.


The Liftware spoon will be hitting the stores in September at just $295 {£189.37}.  Lift Pulse the free Android and iOS app has been developed. The app will record person tremors using your phone built-in accelerometers. It will then calculate its magnitude that allows users to set a baseline tremor that follows reading to compare.




Liftware Spoon help with Parkinson tremors using smart tech

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