By Shelby Nesmith | Staff writer, Technology editor
Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the brain that leads to shaking, also known as tremors, and difficulty with walking, movement, and coordination. One basic activity that is a big struggle for people with disease is eating.
This is difficult and frustrating because the constant shaking of their hands results in food falling off their silverware.The people at LiftLabs noticed this issue and decided to create something to help. They lightened the load of this disease by constructing a Parkinson’s spoon that moves against the tremors. By sensing the movement and then moving in the opposite direction of it. The spoon centers the food’s weight, causing it to stay on the spoon.
The spoon is able to pick up these movements with the assistance of a tiny computer, which is almost identical to ones used in expensive cameras, in the handle of the Liftware. The head of the spoon is detachable from the handle and there will soon be other attachments such as a fork and a deeper soup spoon.
The guys over at LiftLabs are also trying to help out the people who can’t afford this $295 utensil by accepting donations and once they have raised enough for a spoon, they send it out to the International Tremor Foundation or any other Parkinson’s organizations.