Eye Gaze Controlled Neck Brace for ALS Patients with Head Drop

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive loss of upper and lower motor neurons. Patients with neck weakness often use braces to keep the head-neck in a neutral configuration, e.g., Miami J or a Headmaster. The neck braces progressively become uncomfortable to wear and constrict breathing, swallowing and speech. Current research focus in head drop has been on improving comfort during use. However, the real need of regaining head-neck control has not been addressed by this design. There is a paucity of literature on dynamic braces for this user group to facilitate activities of their daily living. We will use a robotic neck brace to provide dynamic head movements. The user intended movements will be given to the neck brace by tracking their eye gaze. The goal of this scientific research is to characterize the benefits of the dynamic neck brace in activities of daily living. If the results are positive, these can be made available to all ALS patients. We envision that this robotic technology will improve the quality of life of ALS patients and will provide them and their caregivers an effective tool to manage the symptom of head drop and poor head-neck coordination.