Two Romanian students invented a sensory glove to help people with paralysis

Two Romanian students have created an intelligent glove that will help with the rehabilitation of people that suffer from paralysis.

The two sixteen year olds, Miruna Alexandra Ojoga and Ana-Maria Tudorache have represented the Alexandru Proca centre for the Initiation of Young people in Scientific research within the Developing and Research National Institute for Electrical Engineering at Intel ISEF. Their project is called “Medical Rehabilitation: Sensors and Monitoring”. The girls, who are both 16, have built a glove with sensors, fingers with sensors and also a cylinder with sensors. The devices are meant to help people that suffer from paralysis due to heart attacks, strokes or accidents.

The devices have special piezoelectrical sensors which are capable of transforming the pressure in an electrical force that can be measured easily. With the help of these devices, doctors can monitor how much force the patient is using and if the therapy is working for them.

The two students have come up with this idea after realising that  hospitals do not have any kind of device to measure the force of patients in medical recovery. This means doctors do not have actual physical data that would tell them if the rehabilitation works.

The girls have already tested the device on eight patients at the Medical rehabilitation institute, however they were not able to gather enough data due to confidentiality laws. According to playtech.ro, the device would be easy to build and would also be cheap. They also noted that one device would be enough for a hospital to test their patients. The girls are competing with this invention in an international contest organized by Intel ISEF. 1700 students will compete for prizes that are estimated at 4 million dollars. Ionut Budisteanu, a Romanian inventor has won previously the Intel grand award for inventing a car that drives itself.

source: playtech.ro

photo: intel.ro