As a part of ASU's Engineering Projects in Community Service program, a student-led team is working on a solution for the tremors experienced due to Parkinson's disease. Using digital signal processing, or DSP, these students aim to stop tremors in their tracks.
DSP converts analog signals like sound waves, radio waves, or seismic waves into electrical signals. Signals are then analyzed and manipulated to reach the information that is relevant to the task, in this case, tremor movement. Algorithmic processes are used to interpret that data. Finally, an electrical signal is sent to counteract the tremor.
The EPICS program put together a student development team to build solutions for Parkinson's tremors. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative condition where a person loses muscle control progressively.
The team created a sleeve that processes data sent from the body when a tremor is detected. They use technology like an accelerometer and gyroscope to analyze the detected tremor. Then DSP sends an electrical signal through the sleeve, to the arm, to stop the tremor.
As a team of undergraduate students, they have faced challenges with the usage and implementation of the complicated DSP technology.
"We don't really have very specific intellectual knowledge on digital signal processing. It's a pretty complex thing, so we're getting stuck up on actually performing the algorithms and developing them," said Dylan Levine, a junior studying electrical engineering and the team lead of the Parkinson's Sleeve development group. "We've tried to contact some professors, but unfortunately, we haven't really gotten much leeway with that in the meantime."
Even facing these challenges, the team was able to build an initial prototype and start to test out the DSP within the sleeve.
Jared Schoepf, the director of the EPICS program at ASU, explained the progress of the team. Schoepf and Levine said they are hoping to start human testing soon.
"Stage two means they're still working on their first round of prototype," Schoepf said. "This semester is stage three, so they've got some test data back to show that it is able to work and they're continuing fine-tuning."
The team's current focus is on analyzing the data and algorithms collected with DSP. After tackling the data compilation, the team will be ready to start integrating all the tools.
"We should be in the prototype area where we could build all these things together, patch them all up and then start testing with a lot of patients," Levine said.
While progress is being made, there is still room for improvement. For example, the time it takes to process the tremor and send electrical stimulation isn't exact.
"There's always going to be a delay. It's going to be minimal enough to where it's not going to have much of an effect, but the delay is going to be in the microsecond range," Levine said.
The team works with a community partner, the Parkinson's Resource Organization. They aim to work with doctors and other medical professionals in the future to get their product used in the medical field and start patient testing.
Their goal is to reduce the discomfort that people experience with Parkinson's and bring back some of the independence that has been taken away. Parkinson's is caused by a lack of dopamine in the brain. The team is focusing on helping with the physical aspects of the disease, rather than the cognitive.
Physical symptoms, like tremors and loss of balance, are more prevalent than cognitive issues in those with Parkinson's disease.
"Not everyone who has Parkinson's experiences cognitive difficulties," said Eileen Lynch from the Parkinson's Resource Organization. "Those that do may experience sleeplessness, trouble sleeping, (with) really active dreams."
Carbidopa and levodopa are the current most common medications used to manage Parkinson's. The sleeve helps manage symptoms of Parkinson's with fewer of the effects of medications.
"There (are) definitely side effects to this medication and they get worse over time," Lynch said. "People experience nausea because, again, the body is fighting that medication. They might experience fatigue."
The EPICS group targets the more common type of Parkinson's and the most common symptom seen in older people. According to Lynch, tremors and shaking are more common in older people with the disease.
Levine's EPICS group is using DSP along with accelerometer and gyroscope technologies to approach Parkinson's with minimal negative health effects. This could change the lives of people with Parkinson's Disease for the better by mitigating the discomfort they feel from the tremors.
Edited by Sophia Ramirez, Abigail Beck and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at myerrag1@asu.edu.
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