Gait and Parkinson's disease: a conceptual model for an augmented-reality based therapeutic device

This chapter presents an augmented-reality based therapeutic device designed to overcome gait problems associated with Parkinson's Disease (PD). A normal model of gait is proposed followed by a model of Parkinsonian gait with the goal of construction of a gait enabling therapeutic device. The fundamental underlying tenet of the model is that vision pathology is responsible for the majority of Parkinsonian gait pathology. The basis for such a claim is the well documented phenomenon known as Kinesia Paradoxa, whereby in the presence of certain so-called visual cues a PD subject can be transformed from a totally immobile, helpless victim of this disease into a near normal walking individual. Several gait-enabling devices are also described.