Liftware is a brand name for a

spoon A spoon (, ) is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a table setting, place setting, it ...

designed to counteract the

tremor A tremor is an involuntary, somewhat rhythmic muscle contraction and relaxation involving neural oscillations, oscillations or twitching movements of one or more body parts. It is the most common of all involuntary movements and can affect the h ...

associated with medical conditions such as

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

essential tremor Essential tremor (ET), also called benign tremor, familial tremor, and idiopathic tremor, is a medical condition characterized by involuntary rhythmic contractions and relaxations ( oscillations or twitching movements) of certain muscle groups i ...

s. The company which designed the projects, Lift Labs, was founded by Anupam Pathak, a

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Ph.D. student. The device works by detecting tremors with an

accelerometer An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change (mathematics), rate of change of velocity) of the object relative to an observer who is in free fall (tha ...

then responding to them with an

actuator An actuator is a machine element, component of a machine that produces force, torque, or Displacement (geometry), displacement, when an electrical, Pneumatics, pneumatic or Hydraulic fluid, hydraulic input is supplied to it in a system (called an ...

. The product first became available in December 2013. Lift Labs (which made the Liftware spoon) was acquired by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

in September 2014 for integration into then life sciences division of Google X. Anupam Pathak became the technical lead for the division. Google launched its version of the spoon in November 2014, priced at $195.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.liftware.com, name = Official website
Videos demonstrating product
*
Shaky hand, stable spoon: High-tech help for essential tremor
' - medical review Google Medical equipment Spoons Motion control Parkinson's disease Verily Manufacturing companies based in San Francisco Manufacturing companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in California