MakeHealth organises a MakeHealth Open Evening every month, focusing on one project. In four hours we design, thinker, code and prototype solutions for one specific health care challenge.
Within the next session of the MakeHealth prototyping experience we will be talking about Parkinson’s disease. One of the most known symptoms of Parkinson’s is the shaking of a limb like the hand, legs, jaw or even organs inside the body. The biological term is called tremor. This is a rhythmic movement which has an unknown cause, we only now that it effects ten thousands of people which numbers are increasing overtime. But luckily people who suffer from this terrible progressive disease have one positive thing in common: hope.
Microsoft was the first to touch this subject by creating a device for a graphic designer who couldn’t draw straight lines anymore because of Parkinson’s. The ‘smart watch’ they created had vibrating motor which would respond to the muscle movement. The theory behind it is ‘white noise’, this is a high frequent noise which could overcompensate the tremor.
Within MakeHealth a team started working on a project, similar to the Microsoft Emma Project, to tackle this life quality effecting disease and develop a wearable solution to counterbalance the tremors.
During our open evening we invite you to thinker and prototype with us. Within the project a first setup developed. Our aim for the open evening is:
• To improve the sensors: create filters, adaptation of the white noise, an easy way to adjust variables, user-feedback, calibrations, reset button. Also, everything must be as tiny as possible because the device needs to be a wearable.
• To improve the design for the wearable such as finding the right material (invisibility, strength, stress, etc.), a proper casing holding the (current) components, an easy way to open the design so that elderly could do it as well.
We would like to invite everyone, designers, engineers, programmers but also future users and fascinated individuals who like to help in any way possible. Together we can make life better for others, people close to ourselves or maybe even us in the future. Bring your own laptop, we provide the materials (sensors), drinks and food. The event will be in English, depending on the audience it can be changed to Dutch.
Join us December 12th and bring your expertise, laptop and good ideas.
We start with pizza from 6 pm.
Entrance is free. Register here.
