ARC Pen Helps Those With Parkinson’s Disease To Write

Having Parkinson’s Disease is no walk in the park, this is for sure. The thing is, when one’s hand starts to get all rickety, it can be rather challenging to do simple, everyday tasks that we take for granted, including feeding ourselves and writing a simple note. We have seen a spoon that helps those with Parkinson’s Disease to eat normally, and the company behind this utensil, Liftware, was acquired by Google last year. Well, this time around, the ARC Pen was developed to combat micrographia.

The ARC Pen was basically developed by a bunch of students from UK’s Royal College of Art and the Imperial College London, and micrographia is a Parkinson’s symptom. One characteristic of this condition is having a patient’s handwriting become smaller and more cramped, the more one writes, until it becomes illegible. This pen hopes to prevent that from happening, as it stimulates key muscles via vibration, courtesy of the integrated motors within so that users end up with more control over their hands.

Since it is relatively bulky in size, it is also a whole lot more comfortable to hold as opposed to regular sized pens. A certain Lucy Jung leads this team, where the original idea proved to be radically different – that is, to come up with a vibrating pen that offers non-patients an idea of what it would be like to write with Parkinson’s.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: pen