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Microsoft's Emma Watch Is a Game-Changer For People With Parkinson's (betanews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Called "Emma," it is a wrist wearable that can help people suffering with Parkinson's disease. The device is named after the Parkinson's sufferer that helped Haiyan Zhang, Innovation Director at Microsoft Research, create the device. What exactly does it do? Well, the incurable disease causes body tremors in those inflicted, and as a result, Emma has very shaky hands. This disease makes it impossible for her to draw straight lines or write legibly. With the wearable on her wrist, however, normal writing and drawing is possible. Remarkably, how it works isn't 100 percent known. "While the wait for a cure continues, Zhang has created what she hopes could be a 'revolutionary' aid for reducing tremors. The Emma Watch uses vibrating motors -- similar to those found in mobile phones -- to distract the brain into focusing on something other than trying to control the patient's limbs. Put simply, Zhang believes Lawton's brain is at war with itself -- half is trying to move her hand, the other half is trying to stop it. The two signals battle and amplify each other, causing the tremors. The device stops that feedback loop," says Microsoft. You will want to watch this video.
Of all the things we shit on Microsoft for -- and rightly so -- Emma sounds really good and they deserve credit for it. Good on Microsoft for investing in such efforts. Now I will go back and use my real ID to criticize them for Windows 10.
I've got so much brain trauma from the repeated head desking from dealing with Microsoft products for so many years. I just can't stop trembling anymore.
Finally Microsoft is doing something to help us poor IT people cope!
Well done, Microsoft!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I'm not crying, you're.
I've watched the video and was wondering why this hasn't been "invented" previously? It looks like it just vibrates the arm randomly, doesn't seem to be trying to perform any counter-motions or anything.
As a spokesperson
This is not a Harry Potter article.
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It's base-lining. Laying in a sensory deprivation tanks causes hallucinations because there are no sensations to establish a mental baseline. This is the same thing but in a neuro-muscular sense.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Microsoft really needs to pivot away from operating systems and onto other things. Microsoft has always made excellent peripherals for example. I remember using the first Microsoft Natural keyboard, and it did wonders for my RSI at the time.
And then they do stuff like this.
Seems to me that if Microsoft spun off their Windows and Office divisions, they'd be a pretty good company.
It would be interesting to see how it works with tasks other than writing and drawing. I wonder if this would negate the need for the special spoon that was invented a few years ago. https://www.google.com/#q=spoo...
Perhaps a larger version placed at crucial nerves near the spinal cord would allow tremors to be eliminate for the entire body.
If only the main company would listen to and use the results of their Research department.
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Whelp, I'm officially an Apple fan boy...
Watching an inspiring video about helping Parkinson's sufferers, and what's the first thing I notice? The Innovation Director at Microsoft Research uses an iMac at home. https://youtu.be/k9Rm-U9havE?t=46s
And next year they're planning one with Daffy Duck.
I have a friend with Parkinson's. I'd love to purchase one of these watches. I wonder if Microsoft intends to make them available now. Will this require a 10 year study and FDA approval? Or was it a one shot for public relations?
[Insert pithy quote here]
You will want to watch this video.
Why are you waving your hand around like that?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
God damn! Who the hell is cutting onions in my office?
Ow my feels.
Fucking awesome
It is great news that M$ is working on stuff like that but it is hardly new, the idea of good vibrations to distract Parkinson sufferers have been around for a while. I think I remember reading that activating a vibrator in a shoe helps PD walk with fewer hesitation.
Let M$ release the product and see where it goes, meanwhile a couple of vibrator motors and an arduino nano or even a RPI zero, might have a positive effect for PD sufferers.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4047229/
Parkinson's is strange. Other things that would seem at first blush to be 'quack' type gadgets or gimmicks actually can help.
Like who knew that a laser pointer can take a immobile later stage Parkinson patient and get them up and walking around the house again
http://www.voanews.com/a/new-laser-device-helps-parkinson-patients-walk/1842186.html
Or that installing a tile floor can help in a somewhat similar way?
Or how about listening to old marching band or EDM music?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4641247/
Hopefully this not only helps suffers but also leads to treatment insights.
It may even lead to breakthroughs in understanding human cognition.
This was from a BBC tech program she just happens to work for Microsoft
I can't remember the last time—if ever—a Microsoft promotional video warranted a Chariots of Fire musical swell.
"Jesus Christ (speak of the devil) I can't remember the last time we introduced a product that changed the world (for the better). And it's got our name on it. ('Me too', 'me three' echoes a pair of nearby cacti.)"
You have to forgive them, it's been a long 40 years, out in the desert, trafficking in neurotoxic juniper berries.
Sounds like it's similar in action to Deep Brain Stimulation but without the radical invasive surgery. I don't mean to belittle Zhang's achievement here but DBS has been around for 30 years, I'm a bit surprised it's taken someone this long to make this leap.
Has this been tested with more patients than Emma?
Emma may not have classic Parkinsons disease - from the video, she does not have a few of the cardinal features of Parkinsons.
It would be nice for this to be generalizable, but seeing it work in more persons with Parkinsons would be reassuring.
You are certainly correct that a one-trial experiment does not substantiate an effective treatment for Parkinson's.
Besides the placebo effect, besides that the degree of symptoms in any given patient can come and go, there were all manner of brain-stimulation or cell-transplant experiments that didn't transfer from the "let's try this on a patient" to the next level of clinical trial.
Sounds like Microsoft wants to market this device. Imagine the amount of good that could come about if they open sourced it and allowed people to build their own.
Great research, Microsoft! congrats to Haiyan Zhang. That said it doesn't look like the real Emma in the video has classic Parkinson, which is a lot more than hand tremor (also slurred speech, posture changes, impaired balance, slowed movements, and more). I doubt Microsoft's Emma watch will help all of these. Nonetheless, new thinking, progress!
I originally saw Emma's watch as part of the BBC 2 Series, The Big Life Fix with with Simon Reeves http://www.bbc.co.uk/programme... http://www.bbc.com/news/av/mag... My father has Parkinsons, so I am hoping a commercial version of the Emma watch will become available within the next couple of years.
I'd like to hear that Emma's Watch has been given any trials with people who have Essential Tremor? It would certainly make life easier for the millions of people that suffer with it, myself included if the Emma Watch helped people with either disease.
The problem that Parkinson's doesn't always mean tremor. It just one of possible symptoms/consequences of the disease. Problem is that muscles become weak and it generally makes people to have difficulties walking, carrying stuff, doing other physical work. While it is nice device for those affected and of course important but it wouldn't call it a game-changer.
Ah, but how to monetize it?
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Human language is brilliantly imprecise. It's a feature not a bug. A really big feature.