LumoPlay App

Due to family members with neurodegenerative disease, I knew that rhythmic tapping or music can often help patients with Parkinsons or MS stop hyper-focusing on moving individual muscles and instead allow innate muscle memory to take over. I thought a floor projection of dots for them to try to step on set to music would be helpful.

I interviewed 3 doctors, one physical therapist, and two older people with walking issues. I asked what providing and receiving this type of therapy is like, what they would want to see, and what their greatest obstacles are. As a result, many new features were developed, including a version of the app where dots on a wall instead of the floor were "clapping" to the beat. This was for patients who needed to not look down. It also emerged that one of the most difficult parts of this type of therapy is turns, which can cause a patient to lose the rhythmic momentum they have built up. The dots on the ground or wall would greatly reduce a patient's need to focus on turning. For patients with a tremor, the statistics on accuracy can also be removed from their view as that might be more discouraging than encouraging. Patients who also have difficulty swinging their arms when they walk can add a reminder to do so. The application was also stated to be potentially useful for stroke or traumatic brain injury patients who need to learn walking muscle memory again.