Indian schoolboy invents affordable smart spoon for trembling hands

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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/25/indian-schoolboy-invents-affordable-smart-spoon-for-trembling-hands

Indian schoolboy invents affordable smart spoon for trembling hands

A 17-year-old with a passion for robotics has produced a cheaper utensil that uses sensors to cancel out hand tremors

Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi
Wed 25 Oct 2023 01.00 EDT

The motivation for his invention came to Aarrav Anil last year when he saw his uncle Arjun, who has Parkinson’s disease, struggle to eat. Some food spilled out of his mouth, the rest splattered on his clothes. Arjun attempted to keep his dignity but the frustration forced the retired civil servant, who is in his 70s, to give up and call his helper to feed him.

The sight of his uncle’s tremors shaking the spoon so violently inspired Aarrav, 17, from Bengaluru, south India, to turn to robotics. He locked himself in his room with microcontrollers, sensors, motors, and a 3D printer. What emerged was a prototype of a smart spoon that is now undergoing trials at the RV College of Physiotherapy in Bengaluru.

The sensors in the battery-operated spoon detect tremors on one side and activate movement on the other, effectively cancelling out shaking to keep the spoon stable.

“I’ve been fine tuning the design based on the college’s feedback – that it needs to be waterproof so that it can be washed without damaging all the electronics inside; that it must be detachable so it can be cleaned and replaced by a fork; and the spoon needs to be deeper to hold more food,” Aarrav says.

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