Eatwell E-spoon
Introduction
The Eatwell E-spoon is an electronic spoon that can help people with hand tremors like those suffering from Parkinson’s disease to eat comfortably and satisfyingly, without spilling their food. E-spoon ensures that the spoon or fork remains stable and at rest while the handle is tilted in various ways due to continuous shaking of the patient’s hand. Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neuro degenerative disease. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease yet and its cause is unknown. Eatwell E-spoon is a simple and economical tool that can benefit a large number of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
How does it work?
The E-spoon consists of gyro sensors (also known as angular rate sensors) , a microcontroller board (Arduino Mini pro), servo motors and batteries.
The gyro sensor measures the angular velocity and the angle by which the spoon handle is rotated or tilted by the hand of the person . This information is fed to the microcontroller board, which analyses and redirects the values to the actuator servos. The servo motors then rotate the E-spoon tip (detachable spoon or fork ) in the opposite direction by the same amount and with the same angular velocity to nullify the effect of tilting due to hand tremors. In this way the spoon or fork stays stable preventing food from spilling . The device can be powered by button cells or batteries.
Following are the three main components of the E-spoon
Future of the E-spoon
The above model of the E-spoon is a working prototype. The Eatwell E-spoon is projected to be around ₹5000–6000 spoon. Other accessories will include attachments for knife and fork. With this, ingestion for the diseased persons can be done without any hurdles , hand tremors will no more disturb their daily consumption.
Links:
Refer to the following links for Arduino code and presentation
GitHub Link - https://github.com/shaurya0406/Team_Firates_Equinox21
YouTube Video Link - https://youtu.be/fW0pax6WhXw
