Microsoft shows off watch that quiets Parkinson's tremors

Tech company developer conferences always feature a wacky demo or three. But at Build 2017 in Seattle Wednesday, Microsoft went for the waterworks at the conclusion of CEO Satya Nadella's keynote address: it showcased a prototype watch that eliminated the arm shaking that often plagues those suffering from the neurological disease Parkinson's. After a speech that both heralded and warned about coming leaps in technological power, Nadella screened a video that told the story of two British Microsoft researchers, Haiyan Zhang and Nicolas Villa, who decided to launch an independent project to create a tremor-eliminating device for a BBC documentary, The Big Life Fix. The Emma Watch, a prototype that was shown at Microsoft Build 2017, can still the trembling arms of those suffering from Parkinson's. Working with graphic designer and Parkinson's sufferer Emma Lawton, 32, the researchers developed a watch -- which they named Emma -- that, according to Microsoft, "vibrates in a distinctive pattern to disrupt the feedback loop between brain and hand."