IT Rehabilitation and Assessment Tool for People with Parkinson's Disease

Using innovative IT technology and the latest scientific models, PARREHA, an EU-funded project resulted in ground-breaking developments. Virtual reality spectacles are being used to dramatically transform the mobility of people suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD).

The project, running over 3 years, incorporates the talents of four engineering companies, the University of Athens, a European Parkinson's Association (EUROPARK) and the European Union's Joint Research Centre (JRC) - all forming a consortium managed by Oxford Computer Consultants who also provide the software programming expertise.

The PARREHA system helps in the assessment of motor performance and the design of rehabilitation training programmes for people with Parkinson's disease (PD) through the use of motion tracking, 3D graphics, audio-feedback, virtual reality and teleconferencing.

PARKWALKER are OCC's virtual reality glasses which are a walking aid for people with Parkinson's Disease. They have been developed from the PARREHA R&D project. They won the EU New Territory Award recently in the European "Design for All - Assistive Technology Awards". The Parkinson's Disease Society is funding a 2-year clinical trial on this assistive walking device.

People with PD are also able to communicate with healthcare professionals via video-conferencing equipment. The medical expert can assess a patient's motor performance and adjust their rehabilitation routines according to their progress, without the patient ever having to leave home.

People with PD often have severe mobility difficulties so that negotiating a journey to a far-off clinical appointment is a daunting prospect. Remote videoconferencing with scarce specialists provides an efficient way of overcoming these problems.

For the many PD patients who exhibit the startling kinesia paradoxa, they respond by being able to walk normally in the presence of audiovisual cues, such as an image of stripes on the floor or sounds of rhythmic music, the PARREHA spectacles are providing significant improvements. Virtual lines projected at the side of the eye are used to trigger kinesia paradoxa and patients with the familiar PD shuffling gait suddenly walk normally. The project is currently undergoing extensive clinical trials at the Institute of Neurology in London.

Our partners for this project:
Advanced Technologies in Business (UK)
EC Joint Research Centre (European Commission)
EuroPARK European Parkinsonians (Germany)
ICCS of National Technical University of Athens (Greece)
Tardito Costruzioni e Impainti Srl (Italy)
ZENON SA Robotics Informatics (Greece)

Glasses in action video clip  
BBC article