Systems and methods for digitographic measurement of Parkinson's disease

A method for diagnosing motor symptoms, comprising:

• providing a digitographic measurement device to a user,
• wherein the digitographic measurement device comprises:
• a housing;
• a plurality of keys attached to the housing, wherein each key in the plurality of keys is tensioned by a respective spring, wherein the spring tension is set to minimize bounce when the key is released such that passive release of a key is minimally impacted by force from the key striking the bottom of the device;
• performing a rapid alternating finger tapping (RAFT) test using the digitographic measurement device;
• recording key press data comprising a continuous amplitude signal describing the key displacement amplitude of each key press over the course of the RAFT test;
• calculating a plurality of digitographic metrics based on the key press data;
• and
• providing the digitographic metrics and an indication of which motor symptoms the user presents based on the digitographic metrics, wherein the digitographic metrics are calculated based on the continuous amplitude signal to generate a report for clinical diagnosis support, and wherein the digitographic metrics comprise a rigidity metric, wherein the rigidity metric is calculated by averaging the difference in amplitude between a lowest point of a given key press and a highest point of a given key release subsequent to the given key press, for each key press in the key press data.

A digitographic measurement system for measuring motor symptoms, comprising:

• a digitographic measurement device, comprising:
• a housing;
• a plurality of keys attached to the housing, wherein each key in the plurality of keys is tensioned by a respective spring, wherein the spring tension is set to minimize bounce when the key is released such that passive release of a key is minimally impacted by force from the key striking the bottom of the device;
• a plurality of sensors, where each sensor in the plurality of sensors is associated with a key in the plurality of keys and continuously measures key displacement amplitude during a rapid alternating finger tapping test;
• and
• an input/output interface within the housing;
• where the digitographic measurement device is configured to transmit key press data generated by the sensors to a controller via the input/output interface;
• the controller, comprising:
• a processor;
• and
• a memory containing a digitographic measurement application, where the digitographic measurement application directs the processor to:
• obtain the key press data from the digitographic measurement device;
• calculate a plurality of digitographic metrics that describe motor symptoms of a user of the digitographic measurement device;
• and
• provide a report for clinical diagnosis support, the report comprising the plurality of digitographic metrics calculated based on a continuous amplitude signal from the key press data and an indication of the presence of any motor symptoms in a user based on the plurality of digitographic metrics,
• wherein the digitographic metrics comprise a rigidity metric, wherein the rigidity metric is calculated by averaging the difference in amplitude between a lowest point of a given key press and a highest point of a given key release subsequent to the given key press, for each key press in the key press data.