Industrial - Bachelor

HoopsBand

The HoopsBand is a wearable device that helps manage the symptoms of Parkinson's disease through rythmic vibrations.

Harry Hooper

Orthographic views of the HoopsBand
Colour varieties in a circular formation
Cross section of a brain

What is Parkinson’s Disease

Now what is Parkinson’s?

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive brain condition caused by the degeneration and death of nerve cells that produce dopamine.

This leads to a hypodopaminergic state, which causes excessive synchronization of beta activity which causes neurons that normally have uncorrelated activity to fire in an overly synchronized pattern.

This creates loops in behavior which cause the countless symptoms of Parkinson’s such as tremors, freezing up, and rumination.

What makes it so important to improve the quality of life in people with Parkinson’s is the fact it’s a disease with no cure and it progressively gets more severe.

Now there is medication however this doesn’t work for everyone, and for those it does it can work quite inconsistently and can just unexpectedly were off.
Frequency waves

How do vibrations help Parkinson’s?

Now how do vibrations help Parkinsons?

Rythmic vibrations provides external sensory input to the brain which helps with desynchronising the excessive beta activity.

This assists in breaking the loops in behaviour such as tremors, muscle freezing, and anxiety and rumination.

What do people with Parkinson’s want in a wearable device?

The research methods used were:

18 responses through online surveys got 18 responses – all people with Parkinson’s

Conducted 6 semi-structured Interviews which consisted of 2 people with Parkinsons, 2 carers, and 2 highly reputable neurologists in Queensland.

From this it became obvious what people with Parkinsons wanted in a wearable device being:

Explaining the wants and don't wants in a wearable device for people with Parkinson's

What is on the market and why it does not satisfy the wants of people with pd

The list of problems of the 4 competitors on the market that use vibrations

The hoopsband overview and backstory

Features & Aesthetics

Side view of the HoopsBand showing how thin it is
The design is very thin, lightweight, and barely protrudes from the users wrist.

The housing is waterproof which is why it utilises pogo pins to charge.
Close up image of the on/off button
The device is incredibly simple to use only having one button to turn on and off the vibrations.

The buttons design makes it not look like a button while being obvious it is a button.

Up close image of the fabric
The band has a patterned and textured fabric.

The fabric is soft and comfortable.

The band is stretchy, which allows the user to slip there hand in and out of the band with ease
Close up to the band
The hard rubber part at the end of the band stops the band from ever slipping through the buckle. This means the user will never have to slip the band through the thin slit in the buckle.

The hard rubber part also acts as extra tactile feel to help the user grab the end of the band when tightening the band around there wrist.

The part that focuses the vibrations into the wrist is designed to be an almost dome shape while that is also smooth and comfortable on the skin.
Shows the variety of colours the band comes in
The HoopsBand housing can be taken out of the band and placed in bands of other colourways.

The companion app

The hoopsband also comes with a companion app which allows users to:

– Select different vibration modes for different situations

– Can create there own custom mode for what works for them

– Can set a sleep timer so the vibrations turn off after a certain period of time

– Can set discrete vibration reminders e.g could remind them to take medication

– Users can also see the battery charge, and when it is charging

Image of the HoopsBand companion app

How it works

Image of the band and the housing separated
User presses the button which makes the housing lid flex slightly which presses the switch button on the PCB.


The button triggers the LRA motor to play the vibration mode that was last input into the app.


When the vibrations are not playing the device goes into a low power mode.

hoopsband on a users wrist

Empowering people with Parkinson’s, not only through functionality, but through purposeful aesthetics. And an image of the HoopsBand on the wrist.

Manufacturing Details

Exploded view of the HoopsBand explaining the components

How I got here

1. Began by finding off the shelf electronic parts that were as small as possible

2. Then arranged different ways they could fit together to fit in a housing that would be as thin as possible

3. Tested different housing shapes to see what would be the comfiest, make the vibrations feel as crisp as possible, and make it look as low profile on the wrist as possible

4. Ideated how the hoopsband would look, go on the wrist, and be manufactured

Shows ideation and iteration process

Harry Hooper

Although Harry is graduating a Bachelor of  Industrial Design, he hopes to be able to explore not only industrial design, as he recognises this is just a starting point, but wishes to explore design of all forms in the future. His interests include aesthetics and user interaction when designing a product, and it was Don Norman saying that a poor design is the cause of human error that made him realise how important interaction design is. Harry also not only loves how the functionality of a product can impact peoples lives positively but also the cross section of design and branding and how this can affect the buyers/ viewers perception of how the product could impact their life positively.