Shake it Off!: A Smart Watch Design for Patients Suffering from Essential Tremors

Essential tremor (ET), one of the most common neurological disorders in adults, impacts millions of individuals worldwide. While there is no known cure for ET, there are options to aid in the reduction of a tremor’s severity like medication such as propanol; however, these are often limited by inadequate effectiveness or side effects that are intolerable. Tremor suppression orthosis is emerging as a possible option for ET patients. Drawing inspiration from Microsoft’s Project EMMA, microcontrollers were used with inertial motion sensors to collect data on a user’s tremors and then designed/built a tremor mitigation watch using small coin cell motors. By combining tremor data with this watch, vibrational frequencies were able to be applied, matching those of a user’s tremor to the surface of an individual’s wrist. We theorize that the haptic feedback will introduce a “short-circuit” into the neurological feedback loop causing a tremor thereby dampening their impact.