Code of the Rings: Using Handwriting Changes to Detect Early Signs of Parkinson's

Overview

Parkinson’s Disease(PD) is a progressive neurological disorder that destroys the brain cells that produce dopamine, resulting in movement-related symptoms such as tremors, and stiffness. In the US 1.2 million people are living with PD, and nearly 10 million worldwide. The number of new cases diagnosed annually has shown a 50% increase from earlier rates in the US. There is no cure for PD, so managing symptoms is essential to maintaining the quality of life. A major challenge is the lack of reliable methods for early diagnosis, which delays timely treatment. Patients typically live with unrecognized Parkinson's symptoms for 5-7 years before diagnosis. By then 80-90% of the brain cells are dead. One of the earliest motor indicators of PD is micrographia—an abnormally small, cramped handwriting pattern. This invention, Neuring, will leverage wearable technologies such as the Smart Rings to detect subtle handwriting changes helping identify the onset of micrographia and Parkinson’s disease at a much earlier stage. Using Colmi R02 smart ring, handwriting data was captured. A program was written that extracted handwriting attributes (e.g., amplitude, jerk, tremor, velocity, and rhythm) and trained a RF machine learning model using handwriting data from PD and healthy volunteers. The datasets consisted of 30 participants and Neuring identified PD with 84.43% accuracy. Future work includes expanding to other smart ring brands and smartwatch compatibility. Every 6 min a person is diagnosed with PD. Neuring proves that the smallest changes can detect the biggest threats.