By Lorrin Windahl.

I’ve watched my nana get older (she’s now 94) and struggle with retaining her independence. My mum had a hard time getting her to move into a nursing home when she was no longer capable of living in her own home. She was in her 90’s no less. So, I can understand that if you had a debilitating disease, or disability, you would always be fighting to maintain your independence. That is why it is great to see designers using their skills to help people continue with their normal lives, for as long as possible.

Liftware Spoon, by Lift Labs, helps stabilise tremors for people who suffer with Parkinson’s Disease.

A good example of this is a new product that enables people suffering from Parkinson’s Disease to continue to feed themselves. The Liftware Spoon, by Lift Lab, helps to minimise the impact of uncontrolled tremors whilst eating. The spoon, which uses tremor stabilisation technology, was developed by Anupam Pathak whilst undertaking his PhD. In a press release, Pathak explained “…the idea is to use active cancellation (which is currently in noise cancelling headphones) to stabilize larger scale motion.”

Basically the technology steadies the spoon even when the hand is shaking. Although not the first product to address the problem it is the first real dignified and unobtrusive solution.

The spoon is only the first product to be designed with the technology. The company has many more products planned.

To learn more about the product and the technology used visit the Lift Labs website.