Peter, a new medical device for Parkinson’s patients, developed by Cambridge inventor Jonathan Fisher
Jonathan Fisher, who is in the final stages of the 2024 Dyson Awards, is the solo start-up founder of Peter, which is developing a wearable biomedical device that helps people with Parkinson’s disease regain their ability to walk when their legs stop working.
The device steps in when sufferers of the debilitating disorder experience a shutdown. The Peter device operates through a bone conductor worn round the neck, and a sensor on one foot. The technology kicks in when the walker’s legs cut out by triggering the appropriate brain activity to re-engage with the walking process.
“The initial idea is based on sound transfers to the collar bone,” says Jonathan. “The collar bone has the least amount of fat around it. It’s also connected to the spine and therefore to the brain.”
He adds: “Most devices use the skull for bone conduction but you can use other bones, it’s just more challenging – hence a necklace which can be hidden. The necklace allows you to play a rhythmic cue to keep you moving – it helps by playing a noise when you’re stuck, so instead of being focused on not being able to walk, your brain takes over. If your foot is stuck, anxiety makes it worse, but with a simple noise, or a line on the floor, it helps you focus on your next step.
“The idea of the sensor is you only hear the noise when you need it – because the sensor has detected your foot is stuck.”
Peter is named after his father, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2018: the device “was initially invented for him as part of my university project”.
While Parkinson’s is famous for causing shakes, there are more than 40 ways the disease causes people to suffer, including freezing of gait. This stops your legs from working and prevents you from moving forward.
“Terrifyingly,” says Jonathan, “this can happen randomly at any time of the day, leading to severe accidents and falls. Watching my dad suffer from this motivated me to design a device for him as an undergraduate, to improve his quality of life and solve this problem.”
While his dad has since sadly declined into late-stage Parkinson’s, Jonathan has forged on, recently graduating from the Accelerate Cambridge programme, and collecting a master’s in industrial systems, manufacture and management (ISMM) at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.
The Cambridge hub is busy developing medical devices which help maintain mobility. Charco Neurotech also has a device for Parkinson’s, the CUE1, though it doesn’t involve bone conduction. But there is a successful bone conduction product on sale – for instance HearGlueEar, which has been developed by Tamsin Brown, a community paediatrician with a special interest in audiology.
“Cambridge is amazing,” says Jonathan. “There’s Addenbrooke’s, the University of Cambridge is supporting me, there’s a big user base and people in Cambridge understand what I’m doing.”
Meanwhile, he’s excited to hear the result of the Dyson challenge.
“It’s down to James Dyson himself, there’s usually two or three winners, they announce the result on 13 November, it all goes online, and James Dyson calls up winners.”
Whatever happens, Peter is now being tested by physiotherapists around the region, with Jonathan giving talks to medical teams from Royston to Bishop’s Stortford.
“Quite a few will be in January,” he says. “They are spread out over the next eight to 12 weeks.”
