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  • Hacker News
  • Very interesting, I worked on something very similar for tremors, just didn’t take it to a product or a startup for reasons. Glad to see someone did it
    by yalogin
  • why did it take 9 years to not even come to market?

    ah, "Today, Encora is focused on building a national sales force and working to secure coverage from insurers."

    by Palomides
  • Really glad they mentioned essential tremors. It can be quite limiting and frustrating
    by fridder
  • There’s an open source project for a glove which seem to aim for similar relief. I wonder how they compare in effectiveness.

    https://github.com/edison-vs-tesla/Parkinsons_Therapy_Glove

    by tagawa
  • The original demo was with a parkinsons sufferer but this clearance is for essential tremors - why the change?
    by trebligdivad
  • This is the kind of technology application that I can get behind. What a wonderful project and great to see the original person with the idea so skeptical that it could work, be outvoted and then see their idea come to life.
    by jacquesm
  • I have essential tremor. Hearing about new treatment options is exciting. At one time my pediatric neurologist basically said the only kind of treatment had real nasty side effects, and most recently the prescription pill I tried also presented side effects that weren't worth it.

    I'm going to look into this when I can. would love to try it if it's financially feasible.

    ETA: Looking at their website and all the models in the photos are older people...

    As someone diagnosed with ET since high school that's kind of funny.

    by spike021
  • Having built a pulsed vibration wristband for someone with Parkinson's, just a few notes. For Parkinson's patients:

      - there's a small-ish window in the disease progression where pulsed vibration is able to help a person regain some intentional motor control
  - the device doesn't stop the tremors
  - the pulsed vibration does let the brain's control signal come through stronger, so drawing/typing/moving the mouse is more intentional.  
  - this is no more effective than the results of levidopa/carbidopa treatment, and the levidopa/carbidopa typically calms the overall tremors
  - as Parkinson's progresses, these devices become useless, and if the patient qualifies for deep brain stimulation, it's worth looking into (regain years of useful life if you're lucky).
    I haven't tested the device on people with essential tremor, so I don't have anything smart to say there.

    You can make a very unsophisticated version of this without a lot of hardware:

      - small microcontroller with 3v outputs (XIAO's are perfect)
  - 3v sealed eccentric mass motors (aliexpress $1/ea)
  - elastic wristband
  - usb battery
  - software to pulse the motors for about 200 miliseconds for an on off sequence of about 8 times, then rest for about a second and repeat.
    Hopefully these folks will price it affordably.

    Side note: the idea was published in 2016-2017 in a few promotional videos from Microsoft research: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsofts-emma-watch-and-pro...

    by wavesplash

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