Could a Digital Pen Change How We Diagnose Brain Function? 23
An anonymous reader writes: By using custom tracking software to monitor the output from a digital pen, MIT researchers say they have found a way to better predict the onset of brain conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. according to MIT: "For several decades, doctors have screened for conditions including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's with the CDT, which asks subjects to draw an analog clock-face showing a specified time, and to copy a pre-drawn clock. But the test has limitations, because its benchmarks rely on doctors' subjective judgments, such as determining whether a clock circle has 'only minor distortion.' CSAIL researchers were particularly struck by the fact that CDT analysis was typically based on the person's final drawing rather than on the process as a whole. Enter the Anoto Live Pen, a digitizing ballpoint pen that measures its position on the paper upwards of 80 times a second, using a camera built into the pen. The pen provides data that are far more precise than can be measured on an ordinary drawing, and captures timing information that allows the system to analyze each and every one of a subject's movements and hesitations."
Not unless... (Score:1)
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You're not a doctor and your comment is rather inane and useless. Do you ever read summaries here? Did your working memory fail to remember the beginning of the first sentence after the title "By using custom tracking software to monitor "... Let's skip all that... Is someone going to design a brain scanning pen with no means to read any of the data? Really? I don't bother to read summaries either sometimes, but I sure as shit know what's gonna come next from me is a curse or moronic shit post. You seem un
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article with question in the title? (Score:1)
I have to objections to the bod statements from the summary and TFA.
Firstly the subjective judgment of the pictures of clocks etc made by patients is indeed subjective if done by a human. So far so good. But then I know from my own painful experience that my drawing skills have been showing Parkinson in grand school already. My drawings and those of other kids in the class showed a massive difference similar to that in TFA. It changed drastically after I attended tech
Re: article with question in the title? (Score:1)
At least they are are collecting real data rather than just one subjective score.
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The key here is to monitor how you're actually handling the pen. Your ability to draw a clock is nothing but a proxy for measuring your motor control. Just having an accelerometer that tracks how much twitching you do would allow you to detect those spasms even if the patient stops drawing for a second while waiting for the shakes to pass.
What is a pen? (Score:3)
Isn't that technology for terrorists and luddites? Writing on non-monitor surfaces ought to be banned. We need to send everything to Microsoft ; arguably we can put in a system with that high tech pen which denies inking before proprer Internet connection and authentication are established, and then the camera can film what's written. So that's good, but the pen may leave a series of words that can then be read unsupervised. So I'm on the fence whether this should be allowed or not, probably some form of paper management should exist and/or just put those that can access the paper under "closer surveillance".
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That was more persuasive before we proved that the NSA was spying on everyone with the help of their corporate friends.
hmm (Score:2)
While I would not draw a clock as per the example image, I've always been *crappy beyond belief* at drawing circles, you name it. Hell, my hand writing makes chicken scratch look like fine art.
For the circle, I'd get the numbers in the approximate correct place, you know, put 9 and 3 and 12 and 6 in first -- but, I can imagine people that never really drew much, perhaps not even thinking about that ahead of time.
So yeah, my circle might be as misshapen as the one in the example article. And, someone that
nice (Score:1)
maybe could also diagnose (Score:2)