Abstract
External cueing with rhythmic auditory stimuli or patterned visual stimuli reduces freezing of gait and improves the quality of gait in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We investigated whether augmented reality glasses can be used to provide these cues and improve locomotion for these patients in a laboratory setting using activities of daily living. We delivered rhythmic visual and auditory cues with the Google glass, such as flashing lights, moving patterns and sounds. Subjects were instructed to navigate different walking paths of varying complexity that included wide and narrow turns and the entrance of a door. The patients were fitted with inertial sensors in a motion capture suit on their body to quantitatively analyze their walking pattern. Two independent raters scored freezing of gait based on videos. The results show that with cues gait patterns normalize and freezing of gait reduces, especially during complicated movements (e.g. full turns, doorways). We conclude that visual/auditory augmented reality cues by smart glasses are a promising tool to reduce freezing of gait and improve the walking patterns of PD patients.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016