TREMORX: An assistive device to improve tremor patient writing capability

Abstract

Patients with hand tremor often face difficulties in performing daily tasks using their hands, especially writing. Hence, this paper presents an inventive assistive device named as TREMORX that can assist patients in overcoming this situation by improving their handwriting legibility. TREMORX is designed to suit the patient’s handgrip and focuses more on the patient’s comfort. The aim is to analyze the performance of the device based on acceleration data by implementing the power spectral density (PSD), which is focused on reduction of coherence amplitude, and displaying the signal in the time and frequency domains. The measured acceleration data are further analyzed with Matlab simulation and show a significant response. The TREMORX is designed in three different lengths of diameter and the stiffness of each one is measured. The effectiveness of the device is identified using the force sensitive resistor (FSR) to measure the force and flex sensor, as to determine the deflection. The results indicate that the patients experienced improvements in handwriting quality when using TREMORX.