UPDRS Tests for Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease Employing Virtual-Touchpad

This paper presents a new approach to diagnosing Parkinson's disease. The progression of the disease can be measured by the UPDRS (Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale) scale which is used to evaluate behavioral and motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Hitherto the evaluation of the advancement of the disease in the UPDRS scale is made by a specialist through medical observation. The authors suggest a partial automation of this process, i.e. using a multimodal interface called Virtual-Touchpad (VTP) may support the medical diagnosis. The VTP is based on processing the image of hand acquired by a camera. Therefore, a patient is not constrained by any equipment. Two types of UPDRS tests that can be supported by VTP are presented in the paper. In the Finger Taps test the patient taps thumb with the index finger in rapid succession. The Rapid Alternating Movement of Hands test consists in pronation-supination movements of hands. VTP captures the image of the patient's hand while performing the test and, based on this image, it assigns hand gesture to the given class. The hand movement velocity is measured and used in the diagnostic process.