Hand Tremor Detection and Feedback System Based on Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study

The hand tremor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients are expressed in a wide variety of forms. These tremors are not limited to specific areas, but the most experienced by PD patients are hand-related. To detect such hand tremor symptoms, a device based on an inertial measurement unit (IMU) was used to measure changes in the vibration speed around the wrist. The sensor data collected from the gyroscope through a dedicated algorithm can be reflected to convert it into a result value of the number of tremors of the user, and hand tremor characteristics can be extracted. The performance of the system was validated using a hand tremor simulator. The experiments confirmed that the algorithm operated normally under the specific conditions set (5–18[Formula: see text]Hz) for hand tremor detection, and the operation results matched those of the theoretically detectable range. The wearable device can measure the user’s bio-kinetic signals in daily life using a gyroscope, adjust the algorithm’s sensitivity based on the severity of tremor symptoms, and continuously monitor symptoms by transmitting the recognition results via Bluetooth communication.