According to foreign media reports, in the late stage of Parkinson’s disease, some patients will have a condition called “frozen gait”, that is, they temporarily lose the ability to move forward while walking. NexStride was designed to solve this problem by using lasers to guide their feet. Freezing gait is obviously quite frustrating, and at the same time it can be dangerous. This is because when people’s feet are fixed on the floor, their upper body continues to move forward, which can cause them to lose their balance and fall.
As a student at Cal Poly, Sidney Collin was responsible for developing a walking aid for a local Parkinson’s disease patient with gait freezing. Now, she is the CEO of de Oro devices, and her NexStride has become the company’s latest product.
It is understood that NexStride uses rubber O-rings, which are mounted on the user’s walking stick, walking aid or walking rod. It contains an electronic metronome with an adjustable rhythm and an angle adjustable laser facing downward – which projects a green line on the floor in front of the user, perpendicular to their direction of travel.
Previous studies have shown that visible targets on the ground, such as the lines between the tiles, can alleviate gait freezes to some extent, allowing users to look at them before stepping out. This activates circuits in their brains so they can continue to walk. NexStride is understood to cost $599.
