Created shoes that make life easier for people suffering from Parkinson's syndrome

Dutch specialists from the Universities of Twente and Nijmegen created special shoes for people suffering from Parkinson's disease.

One of the consequences of this insidious disease, affecting a huge number of people around the world, is the inability to walk forward. This symptom manifests itself with a significant progression of the disease and can be not only unpleasant, but also a dangerous phenomenon. After all, the body of the patient involuntarily moves forward when trying to move, while the legs remain in place. This can cause serious injuries.

One of the ways to help alleviate these symptoms is to use tiles on the floor. The lines, which are formed in this case, serve as a guide for a person and activate brain activity, helping to continue movement. Dutch scientists based their project on this principle.

Each shoe in contact with the surface creates a red laser line, which is projected onto the floor. A visual reference point is formed, through which a person steps over. The next step again forms a landmark. And so on. The patient acquires the ability to walk not only on a special floor, but also on a normal coating.

The plans of specialists - to continue work to improve their inventions. So, for example, they intend to achieve a result in which the red laser lines will occur precisely at the moments of “freezing”, and not at each step. In practice, this is not easy to achieve, since the processes occurring in the brain of a person suffering from Parkinson's disease have not yet been fully studied.