VIPR- Vibration Induced Parkinson’s Relief

Abstract

This paper describes VIPR, an inexpensive tremor detection and mitigation device to help Parkinson’s patients. It is built using a Raspberry PI, an accelerometer, power switches and a wristband with rows of coin motors, and python code. More than 10 million people world-wide have visible symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. There is no known cure for the disease and the annual cost for treatment is estimated to be >$50Billion. Whole body vibration therapy has been widely researched but is expensive and not easily available. This device fits around a patient’s wrist and uses an accelerometer to detect the onset of tremors and turns on the vibrating coin motors in the wristband at different levels depending on the tremor intensity. The data is continuously logged and sent to a care giver via a SMART phone connection. The accelerometer in the device is used to measure the change in acceleration in X,Y, and Z directions every 0.2 seconds and the data is compared to a threshold value to determine if the movement is a tremor or not. Once its established that it’s a tremor, a relay switch turns on the coin motors on the wrist. Data was collected on Parkinson’s patients to establish the efficacy of the vibrating wrist band and the threshold. The band was found to effectively improve the motor response of the patients while performing simple tasks such as writing and moving objects. This inexpensive device was found to be effective and can be used to improve the quality of life of Parkinson’s patients.