Early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are often difficult to detect. One of the hallmark signs is small, frequent hand tremors. Researchers have introduced an innovative solution - a diagnostic pen capable of accurately capturing these movements.
The pen does not write in the traditional sense. Its flexible magnetic tip, made of neodymium magnets, and ferrofluid ink respond to motion by generating fluctuations in the magnetic field. These changes produce an electric current in a conductive coil embedded within the pen’s body. The resulting signal is then analyzed to identify characteristic features of hand movements. In a pilot study, electrical signals from the pen were used to train a neural network. The algorithm distinguished handwriting of Parkinson’s patients from that of healthy individuals with over 96% accuracy.
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