Google Glass for Parkinson’s disease: benefits and drawbacks

WHAT IS GOOGLE GLASS

Google Glass is a wearable technology that looks like a set of designer glasses. It was developed by Google and works in the same way as a smart-phone, displaying information on its lens. However the difference is it is mostly voice-operated, which makes it easier to use- compared to a touch-screen- for Parkinson’s patients experiencing tremor and “off” periods of medication.

HOW CAN GLASS HELP WITH PARKINSON’S

For now researchers have focused on two aspects of Parkinson’s that Glass might be useful with: preventing gait disturbances and enabling patients to live more independently.

In 2013 researchers in the Netherlands from the University of Twente have started developing new apps to improve the gait and prevent falls in patients with Parkinson’s. It is already established that the gait of patients improves with regular visualisation and/or hearing of a pattern. Technology such as Google Glass can be used to provide visual overlays, in form of shapes or stripes that the person would see through the glasses or patters of music, which they would hear through the device’s earphone.

In UK in 2014, doctors at Newcastle University started looking at how the Google Glass technology can be used to help control behaviours associated with Parkinson’s. The idea is that the device can be used to provide discrete prompts such as to swallow in order to prevent drooling and to speak up when people’s voice and volume gets affected by the disease. In addition, the device could also be used as a reminder about when exactly to take the different medications during the day. Researchers are also taking on the work done by scientists in the Netherlands and exploring how Glass’s motion sensors can help patients experiencing “freezing”, the blocking of movement which is a common symptom in Parkinson’s disease.

WHAT ARE GLASS’S SHORTCOMINGS FOR PARKINSON’S DISEASE USERS

As mentioned earlier, people suffering of Parkinson’s experience alteration to their voice, therefore it is felt that the Glass voice recognition system needs improvement. "The fact that it wasn't recognising what I wanted was very irritating and very frustrating," said one of the Newcastle study participants.
Patients also had trouble with navigation gestures, a mixture of tapping on the device’s side and swiping to navigate the menus.
Lastly a drawback of Google Glass is that it stands out: participants of the study felt that members of the public had various reaction to the device, which varied from some not noticing it to others starting suspiciously at the Glass user as if they were up to something bad.

CONCLUSION

Google Glass is a device with a lot of potential for being a tool to help people with Parkinson’s disease, however to make the most of this technology researchers need to continue working in partnership with people living with the condition. Only they can give valuable feedback to the researchers as to what needs working on to meaningfully improve their lives.

 View the full press release from University of Newcastle here.