An Augmented Reality Program Can Help Patients Overcome Parkinson’s Symptoms

2018, Tom Finn took his father, Nigel, to a physiotherapy appointment. Nigel suffers from vascular dementia, which has symptoms similar to those of Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disease characterized by motor symptoms such as tremors, stiffness and difficulty with balance. He was losing the ability to walk.

The physical therapist introduced Finn to cue markers – colored lines laid out on the floor that can help people with Parkinson’s disease overcome difficulty walking. Finn didn’t believe it. He couldn’t see how some of the lines on the floor would help his father. But when they got home, he put some colorful exercise bands in the kitchen and watched in amazement as his father moved back and forth between them with ease.

This technique, called external cueing, works by using visual, auditory or tactile cues – colored tape on the floor, a metronome playing or physical cues. vibration– Engage neural pathways that are not affected by disease. “It can help people focus, help them take the first step and get over an impasse,” said Claire Bell, associate director of Parkinson’s Research UK, a charity that research and support the disease.

Although Finn, who works in marketing and video production in London, was shocked by the effectiveness of this simple intervention, he thought it was too basic and wouldn’t actually help. But augmented reality glasses from companies like Magic Leap are just starting to hit the market, and he wonders if they can project virtual lines onto the ground as cues. He founded a new startup, Stroll, to try to turn this vision into reality.

Jorgen Ellis said that two years later Stroll had no employees and about £50 in the bank. Ellis, a New Zealander with a background in furniture start-ups, came to the UK looking for his next business and wanted to get involved in something that interested him. His grandfather had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for more than a decade, and when he met Finn through mutual contact, he immediately saw the promise of the technology. He joined the company as CEO to first try to prove that AR-based prompts were scientifically valid.

Ellis and Finn soon found a group of academics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, led by Melvyn Roerdink, who were working on similar research. Stroll acquired their intellectual property, and with Roerdink as chief innovation officer, they began developing and testing the technology, now called Reality DTx.

Rather than using physical straps like Finn’s, Stroll’s AR software simulates colored lines on the floor in front of the wearer, each of which disappears when they clear it. A clinical trial (supported by Stroll) confirmed that the tip technology works and found promising results.

It could also help with rehabilitation exercises amid a shortage of physical therapists: The software includes AR games like Whack-a-Mole and Basketball, but is designed around functional movement to help people with Parkinson’s disease. Mark Ross, now Stroll’s head of brand and creative strategy, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago at the age of 36. one of the symptoms. “You may know you have to exercise … but that doesn’t help you get out of a chair,” he said. Therefore, the fact that it is gamified makes the exercise more engaging.

Magic Leap headsets running the software cost around £3,000 ($3,800), and Stroll’s service costs up to £300 a month – but Ellis believes this is more cost-effective than 30 half-hour sessions of on-site physiotherapy. Ellis said the company’s ultimate goal is to become “the most widely used recovery software in the world.” They even set a specific timetable: 7 million minutes of rehabilitation therapy using Stroll equipment in one week by New Year’s Eve 2029. Neurological disorders. There are “almost unlimited opportunities,” he said.

This article was published in the January/February 2025 issue British “Wired” magazine.