In 2018, Tom Finn took his father, Nigel, to his physical therapy appointment. Nigel had vascular dementia. Parkinson’s disease can have symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disease characterized by motor symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, and decreased balance. He was losing his ability to walk.
A physical therapist told Finn about cue markers, colored lines on the floor, that help Parkinson’s patients overcome difficulty walking. Finn wasn’t convinced. He didn’t see how the lines on the floor would help his father. But when he got home, he put some colored exercise bands in the kitchen and watched in amazement as his father strode up and down on them.
This technique, called external stimulation, uses visual, auditory, or tactile stimulation (colored tape placed on the ground, a metronome playing, or physical vibrations) to target neural pathways not affected by the disease. Masu. “It helps people focus their attention and take the first steps to overcome the freezes,” says Claire Bale, deputy director of research at Parkinson’s UK, a UK research support charity. say.
Finn, who worked in marketing and video production in London, was struck by the effectiveness of this simple intervention, but thought it was too basic to be of any practical use. But with augmented reality glasses like Magic Leap just starting to hit the market, he wondered if virtual lines could be projected onto the ground to act as cues. He founded the startup Stroll to make that vision a reality.
Jorgen Ellis said that after two years, Mr Stroll had no employees and about £50 in the bank. Ellis, a New Zealander with a background in furniture start-ups, came to the UK looking for his next venture and wanted to be involved in something he was passionate about. His grandfather had been living with Parkinson’s disease for more than a decade, and when he met Finn through a mutual connection, he immediately saw the promise of this technology. He joined the company as CEO and started by demonstrating the scientific validity of AR-based queuing.
Ellis and Finn soon discovered that a group of scholars led by Melvin Roldink was conducting similar research at the University of Vieux in Amsterdam. Stroll acquired their intellectual property, brought Roerdink onto the board as chief innovation officer, and began developing and testing the technology, now called Reality DTx.
Instead of a physical band like the one Finn used, Stroll’s AR software simulates colored lines on the floor in front of the wearer, and each line disappears when cleared. Clinical trials (supported by Stroll) have confirmed the feasibility of this queuing technology and have shown promising results.
It may also be useful for rehabilitation amidst a shortage of physical therapists. The software includes AR games such as Whack-a-Mole and Basketball, but it is designed around functional movement to help people with Parkinson’s disease. Mark Ross, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago at the age of 36 and is now head of brand and creative strategy at Stroll, credits these games with helping him overcome the apathy and depression that are also symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Says it’s helpful. “You may know you need to exercise…but that alone won’t help you get out of the chair,” he says. So the fact that it’s gamified makes the exercise even more appealing.
A Magic Leap headset running the software costs about £3,000 (about $3,800), and Stroll’s service costs more than £300 a month, but Ellis says it costs about 30 minutes in-person physiotherapy sessions. It claims to be more cost-effective than taking it 30 times. Ultimately, the company’s goal is to become “the most used rehabilitation software in the world,” Ellis said. They also have a specific schedule in mind: 7 million minutes of rehabilitation per week using the Stroll device by New Year’s Eve 2029. By then, Ellis hopes Stroll will be available for use in all kinds of neurological conditions, from stroke to multiple sclerosis. There are “nearly limitless opportunities,” he says.
This article appears in the January/February 2025 issue of the magazine. British magazine “WIRED”.
