2. Hand Tremor
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) affect one million people only
in US (4 million worldwide)*
14th leading cause of death in US
Economic burden: 6 billion USD annually
Expected to increase substantially in the next years due
to the aging of the population
Most common symptom: constant shaking of muscles
(hands, fingers, writs, neck, and face)
Other muscular disorders also share this symptom
* Source: National Parkinson Foundation - http://www.parkinson.org/about-
3. Symptom evaluation
Physician observe the tremor
Patient evaluate the intensity with a 1 to 10 scale
Other approaches:
◦ Gloves
◦ Individual accelerometers
◦ Touch screens
◦ Wearables (wristbands)
◦ Smartwatches
4. Problem with current
approaches
Patient evaluation is subjective to emotional stress
Physician observation lacks precision
Other approaches:
◦ Require instrumentation
◦ Do not provide accurate data for each finger, writs, and palm
The precise measurement of hand parts with tremor can:
◦ Help diagnose the stage of the symptom
◦ Avoid a physical appointment with a doctor
◦ Track the symptom’s evolution over time
◦ Creates a global database with precise information about the
symptom
◦ Provide valuable data for products, services, treatments, and
5. HTMA – Hand Tremor Measurement
Application
HTMA uses the hand/finger tracking of the Intel®
RealSense™ Developer Kit and the Creative Camera
22 data points are computed for each hand:
◦ Only the average X and Y micro variation for each finger, palm, and
wrist is stored
A 10 seconds session for each hand gathers the writs,
palm, and five fingers micro variations
A CSV text file is generated after the session and it is
ready for database import, graph generation, and
analysis
The interface shows line graphs with the X and Y
variation for each finger, palm, and wrist
Overall movement variation is also shown and stored
8. HTMA - Conclusion
Parkinson’s Disease and other muscular disorders have hand
tremor symptoms
Current approaches to measure tremor are subjective, lack
precision, or require instrumentation
HTMA provide accurate micro variations measurements of
palm, wrist, and fingers
Avoid a physical visit to the doctor to check the symptom
progression during a treatment or therapy
Future features: other hand/finger positions and Z dimension
variation
The data gathered can be used to:
◦ Help diagnose diseases and symptom progression over time
◦ Classify symptoms stages from a global database
◦ Provide precise data to new treatments, therapies, services, and