Microsoft's Emma Watch is likely to help people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease

Though there is no cure for Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder, many companies are launching initiatives to help the people diagnosed with it live better lives. Joining the list of many, Microsoft has unveiled the Emma Watch, a wrist-wearable created to help reduce the hand tremors that comes with Parkinson's disease.

The demo was shared at the company’s Build 2017 developer conference along with a number of announcements for cloud computing, Visual Studio for Mac, Intelligent Cloud for IoT devices and more.

The reason behind Emma Watch:

Designed by Microsoft Research Innovation Director Haiyan Zhang, the watch is named after Emma Lawton, her friend and a Parkinson's patient. Lawton, who is also a graphic designer, was diagnosed with Parkinson in 2013, and the new wearable, helped her to write again.

The video shared by BBC' documentary series, reveals Zhang spent six months prototyping a wearable that sends vibrations to Lawton's brain forcing it to focus on her right wrist. This reduces the extra signals and thus stops muscle tremors. The wearable watch features an interchangeable strap, available in different colours. The wearable is connected to a Windows 10 tablet with an app for controlling vibration speed.

Lawton says, "The device doesn’t stop my tremor. It gives me some control there. The writing, it’s not going to be perfect. But, my God, it’s better."

Will this wearable reach more people?

“I’ve been chatting with Emma, Parkinson’s researchers and experts to put together a deeper piece of research on how AI and wearables can better support people with Parkinson’s to manage their symptoms and medication intake,” Zhang says. “This would be an extension of the original Emma Watch project but could be quite an impactful piece of work. At the moment, it’s still only in the proposal stage.”

Recently, Google also launched Study Watch, a wearable to identify patterns in the progression of Parkinson's disease. Elon Musk is also trying to connect computers directly to human brains, with tiny, implanted electrodes to treat Parkinson's and other intractable brain disorders.