KinGloves: Rapid Prototyping of Usability Enhanced Sensing Gloves for Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a progressive neurological movement disorder causing motor (movement) impairments, leading to difficulty in performing activities of daily living such as eating, writing, cutting vegetables, buttoning a shirt, tying shoelaces, brushing teeth, etc. Although sensing clothes has gained popularity in monitoring disease progression in home settings, they pose usability challenges arising from movement/cognitive symptoms that hamper their adoption and adherence. In this study, we employ a user-centered design process with an aim to improve the wearability of gloves through a multi-phase study involving 23 people with PD (PwPD). The goal was to design gloves with suitable wrist closure and finger insertion mechanisms to enable independent upper-body movement assessments. The first phase conducted with 4 PwPD helped identify preferred and undesired glove-wearing mechanics through 12 daily living tasks. Next, a rapid prototyping process for textiles, using a laser cutter, produced three design concepts for evaluation by 9 PwPD. The best-performing prototype design was chosen for capacitive sensing thread integration and design revision. The capacitive sensing threads play a crucial role in accurately measuring finger flexion and extension, providing high-resolution data on hand movements that are critical for assessing finger movements associated with Parkinson's Disease symptoms. After incorporating participant feedback, the improved design had an average reduction of 23% in time to wear and 250% in time to take off when tested with 18 PwPD. In particular, features such as a view window for fingers and use of zippers had been reported by participants to improve glove usability.