The Adaptive Utensil Handle
Nate Conklin and Steven Gordon
Background Material and Methods
Tremors are a considerable annoyance to those with
Materials Overhead 3D model
Parkinson's and older adults. The NINDS (2021) states, "A ● 3D printer Front view 3D model blueprint
tremor is an involuntary, rhythmic muscle contraction ● ABS filament
leading to shaking movements in one or more body ● 4 Rubber bands
● hot glue gun
parts" (NINDS, 2021). According to NIH (2019), "It is a
● Hot glue
common movement disorder that most often affects the
● Fish Weights
hands but can also occur in the arms, head, vocal cords,
● Plastic spoon
torso, and legs" (NIH, 2019). It can affect almost any Method(s)
body part, but the trembling occurs most often in the 1. Tinkercad was used to create the exterior design of the product
hands — especially when simple tasks are done, such as 2. Drill inside to cross-section the structure with rubber bands.
3. Use glue and the hot glue gun to then glue the rubber bands
drinking from a glass or eating. So, a handle that could fit
together
onto a utensil and stabilize it could be beneficial and 4. Then, insert the weights
prevent messes and eating difficulty. According to 5. The product will be tested by creating fake tremors while taking ten
Khawaounjoo (2019), "The results of the scoops out of a bowl of Cheerios. The contents of the spoon after
the scoop will be dumped into a sieve over a measuring cup. The
three‑attempt‑transfer‑task did not reach significance for
the amount of rice transferred in grams or the time taken milk will fall into the measuring cup to see the amount of milk
collected, and the cheerios will stay in the sieve to be counted. This
to achieve the task. Paradoxically, less rice was
will be repeated twice with the product and with a regular spoon.
transferred with the device switched on compared with
switched off" (Khwaounjoo, 2019). Scientists should not Results
give up because the object created should work and The design was tested as described above while
create a better life for people living with tremors. This simulating a tremor. Each trial took ten scoops using
product should make simple tasks more manageable, the product and ten without it. The first trial with the
such as eating. object got 142 full Cheerios, 15 smaller pieces, and 30
milliliters of milk. In the second trial, the product got
Objectives 130 full cheerios, 11 incomplete Cheerios, and 20
milliliters of milk. The test was completed again using
⬜Make a handle that stabilizes utensils. a regular spoon. The first trial without the object got
120 Cheerios, 9 incomplete cheerios, and 29 milliliters
• Make it Inexpensive and easy to make. of milk. In the second trial, it got 115 Cheerios, 8
⬜Help those with help Tremors incomplete cheerios, and 25 milliliters of milk without
the product. An unexpected variation in this
• Add a utensil that counters the tremors experiment is that cheerios, when wet, will stick to the
vibration spoon slightly.
Figure 1. # smaller pieces of cheerios scooped
Regular spoon
from a bowl and milliliters of Milk from the cereal
through the test Regular spoon without bowl.
the product pouring 35
29
cheerios for the test 30 30
25
25
20
20
15
15
11
10 9 8
5 Smaller
0 Tremor - NINDS Catalog.
Trial 1 with Trial 2 with Trial 1 Trial 2
object object without ob- without ob-
ject ject
Object in action Object in the test
Conclusion
The project worked well, as the results were better
for the product. The casing for our object is about 14
cm to 14 ½ cm tall and 5 cm wide. Then on trial 1,
the milk was the only thing out of the regular
spoon’s reach, with the amount being 5 milliliters
more on the regular spoon without our product. The
factors that helped our design are the larger grip to
The Object finished get a better hold on it, the weights, which have more
mass and are harder to shake, and the rubber
bands to help with stabilization. Some factors that
hurt the design were a production error resulting in
the rubber bands being too tight, so the device was
more rigid than wanted. Also, the metal spoon that
was going to be used was .1mm too big to fit into
the device, and that reduced weight could have
helped. Nevertheless, the goal of making an
inexpensive handle to stabilize utensils for those
with tremors was achieved. In addition, things were
learned about what could have been done to make
the product perform better than it already does.
Overhead view of the items used in the test
Results continued
References
Figure #2
# of cheerios scooped from a bowl (10 scoops) Khwaounjoo et al.: Khwaounjoo, P.; Singh, G.; Grenfell, S.; Özsoy,
B.; MacAskill, M.R.; Anderson, T.J.; Çakmak, Y.O. non-contact
142
130 hand movement analysis for optimal configuration of smart
160 120 115 sensors to capture parkinson’s disease hand tremor. Sensors
140
120 2022, 22, 4613.
Trial 1 100
Mohammad Shah Faizan and Mohammad Muzammil
Milk 80
Hand tremor suppression device for patients who have
60
40 Parkinson’s disease
Trial 2 20
Tremor Fact Sheet - National Institute of Neurological Disorders
0
Cherrios and Stroke. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/tremor-fact-sheet
https://catalog.ninds.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/
tremor_1.pdf
All Photos are taken by Nate Conklin and Steven