The top national winner for India of the James Dyson Award 2019 goes to… 23-year-old, National Institute of Design (NID) graduate, Ashwathy Satheesan for ‘Fleo’ – a writing aid for those with Parkinson’s tremors.
“In the past, this platform has helped to bring many meaningful student ideas to life. I feel this provides great support and confidence that is much needed for an early professional starting off their career,” she said. “There is a great need for designers to work on real-world problems, not just for the luxurious world.”
The name Fleo was derived from the word ‘flow’. It works on gyroscopic principles to stabilize and reduce tremor impacts, facilitating a more confident and efficient writing/drawing. The inner workings of the pen consist of a copper ring rotor attached to a motor with a battery. When turned on, it acts as a gyroscope and tries to remain in its original axis of rotation, which provides resistance to any undesirable vibration of the pen. For convenience and re-usability, it is easily rechargeable and refillable. The form of the pen is a result of placing focus on offering good ergonomic support and a confident grip.
The tool was first developed as a part of her third-year curriculum in her Product Design course. Ashwathy said:
At NID, we are encouraged to select a problem area and try solving it. This was my second research project and I wanted to do something relating to inclusivity and people with special needs. Which is how I found people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. During the interaction with them at the Parkinson’s Disease Society in Ahmedabad, I had observed their daily routines, understood their difficulties and realized they need help in writing and drawing. This inspired me to work in this area.
Many prototypes were made to test user involvement and its efficaciousness. She said:
Initial rapid mock-ups helped to set a direction, while later ones were focused on finding the right engineering principle to solve the issue. This stage was crucial for proving the concept and get optimum results. The most challenging part was making the prototypes in-house by hand to test the results.
The process of bringing Fleo into fruition began by finding an opportunity to finally develop a product. At first, she had no idea that it would end up as a pen/product. “The ideas and concepts completely evolved throughout the development,” said the young innovator.
Fleo is in the beginning stage where she has a proof of concept that it works. Now, she just needs funding and the opportunity to collaborate with subject matter experts to develop the pen further. “I feel this could go a long way in empowering those suffering from Parkinson’s tremors,” she added.
It is estimated that between 7 and 10 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s disease placing the illness at the top of the list of most common age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Hand tremors are one of the most common symptoms of Parkinson’s and they get worse as the illness progresses, eventually taking a toll (more and more) on people’s everyday lives. At the moment, there are products available in the market for daily activities but there is no solution for writing/drawing.
