Walk This Way

Sleep can be very inspirational for creative people. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards claims to have awoke from a dream with the opening riff of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction running through his noggin. While legions of rock fans will be eternally grateful for Richards' fateful snooze, a sleep-induced discovery by an Israeli professor of computer engineering could have much more tangible benefits for mankind. Yoram Baram has created a virtual reality mechanism that helps millions of people with movement disorders walk more easily. The apparatus, which can be attached to a patient's clothes, feeds images of a moving tiled floor to a tiny device connected to a pair of eyeglasses. Motion sensors allow the tiled floor image to move when the wearer moves and at the same speed. By giving patients visual clues, the device helps them walk with much more stability.

Baram, who is at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, says the seed for the discovery was planted five years ago, when he saw a doctor afflicted with Parkinson's Disease saying in a TV interview that he found it easier to walk along tiled floors. Baram wondered why that was, but eventually the problem receded into his memory. Three months later, however, the solution suddenly came to him. "I was just sleeping on it," he explains. Several years earlier, Baram realized, he solved a similar problem when he worked with NASA in designing a helicopter navigation system. That system uses visual points to help pilots remain stable in space. The movement-aid device essentially replicates the experience of walking down a tiled hallway. But, as he notes, "most of the world isn't tiled," so it gives patients the same beneficial effects regardless of where they're walking — along a sidewalk, in a park or on a beach, "places where there are no visual clues."

A newer version replaces the tiled floor with lines that move with the patient. If the wearer starts to stumble, the lines start to move further apart. The device should help not only Parkinson's victims, but people who have suffered strokes or have damage to their inner ear. "Visual clues can compensate for a lot of deficiencies," Baram says.

Tests on 40 patients, ranging in age from 46 to 82, at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, proved very encouraging. The device improved the walking ability of all them to some degree. On average, they showed a 30% improvement in gait and walking speed. Moreover, Baram notes, "there seems to be a rehabilitation effect." After using the device, early results show that patients continue to walk better on their own for at least another 30 minutes. He's hopeful that eventually the device may replace the drug therapies and surgical techniques now used to help people with movement disorders.

Baram expects to be ready to commercialize his invention in about a year, after it's been reduced in size even more. He estimates it should cost about $300. That's not much, especially if it eliminates the need for medications or surgery. For millions of people with movement disorders, Baram's slumbering solution may be a dream come true.