Continuous tremor monitoring in Parkinson’s disease: A wristwatch-inspired triboelectric sensor approach
Sirinya Ukasi, Satana Pongampai, Basanta K. Panigrahi, Swati Panda, Sugato Hajra, Hoe Joon Kim, Naratip Vittayakorn, Thitirat Charoonsuk
Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) prevalence is projected to reach 12 million by 2040. Wearable sensors offer a promising approach for comfortable, continuous tremor monitoring to optimize treatment strategies. Here, we present a wristwatch-like triboelectric sensor (WW-TES) inspired by automatic watches for unobtrusive PD tremor assessment. The WW-TES utilizes a free-standing design with a surface-modified polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film and a stainless-steel rotor within a biocompatible polylactic acid (PLA) package. Electrode distance is optimized to maximize the output signal. We propose and discuss the WW-TES working mechanism. The final design is validated for activities of daily living (ADLs), with varying signal amplitudes corresponding to tremor severity levels ("normal" to "severe") based on MDS-UPDRS tremor frequency. Wavelet packet transform (WPT) is employed for signal analysis during ADLs. The WW-TES demonstrates the potential for continuous tremor monitoring, offering an accurate screening of severity and comfortable, unobtrusive wearability.