Research Projects

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects motor activities, resulting in tremors and adverse cases such as Freezing of Gait (FOG). FOG is a brief, episodic loss of forward movement of feet in PD patients, leading to poor quality of life and difficulty in performing routine domestic tasks. FOG is associated with severe PD patients and often occurs while performing dual talks and going through narrow, cluttered spaces. Pahophysiology studies reveal that FOG is due to dysfunctional cortical and sub-cortical communication known as circuitopathy, which disrupts the afferent process of the brain. Visual stimuli can alleviate FOG, but the reason is unclear. The role of vision can be used to design aids for FOG to improve the quality of life for PD patients suffering from FOG. This study aims to develop a device to help Parkinson's patients walk independently without stimulations, as deep brain stimulation has no effect on freezing of gait with any programming parameters. This device helps Parkinson's patients overcome depression and improve their quality of life. The proposed system consists of designing and helping Parkinson's patients from free falling by taking inputs from the shoe. The objectives of the study include building a device that can give a laser line, vibrate, and prompt to cross the line, building hardware that communicates to start a vibrator, and maximizing space on the glove for hardware components.