Grandma-inspired gadget
Student, whose Grand June had Parkinson’s, invents special spoon
For family dinners, Raleigh Dewan’s grandmother would get out the fine china and cook lavish meals of fried chicken with spiced grits, brown gravy and yeast roll that Dewan said came out “insanely” beautiful.
When Grand June developed Parkinson’s disease, Dewan watched as hand tremors made it difficult for her to hold a spoon and share meals with her family. Parkinson’s was stealing away his grandmother’s agency.
Entering Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Dewan was determined to find a solution for Grand June and patients like her.
Three years later, he has created Steadispoon, a self-stabilizing utensil that helps patients with hand tremors feed themselves. Steadispoon has no motors or batteries. The product has received tens of thousands of dollars in seed money and recently won a $20,000 grant from Venturewell, an organization that supports student inventions.
After testing Steadispoon with Parkinson’s patients this year, Dewan and his team want to improve the design and create a batch for sale by next year.
At the heart of Dewan’s entrepreneurial spirit is love for his grandmother, who passed away in 2020.
“I think especially those last few years of life for Parkinson’s patients could be made so much better if they are able to have those close family meals,” he said.
“To not be robbed of that sense of agency and autonomy that comes from what you’ve done your entire life: to feed yourself.”
Grand June spent 42 years of her life in rural Hazen, Arkansas. Growing up, Dewan spent summers with her feasting on “exquisitely cooked meals.”
When Grand June’s hand tremors developed, Dewan was determined to help her enjoy their family meals.
Self-stabilizing cutlery sets were on the market, but many used motors and electronics to function, meaning they cost over $200 and required regular charging to function. Nonmotorized spoons were cheaper, but less effective at countering tremors in all three axes of motion — X, Y and Z.
Dewan discovered a solution in an unlikely place: film sets.
Dewan’s two older brothers work in the film industry — one as an actor, the other as a filmmaker. Dewan had watched huge cameras swing through the air, capturing chaotic action scenes with smooth, seamless motion. He was captivated by the Steadicam mounts that kept cameras level throughout.
“(Steadicam) could stabilize this massive Hollywood film set camera, doing all these cool tricks and turns,”said Dewan. “But somehow, we couldn’t stabilize my 90-pound grandmother’s trembling hand?”
Dewan wondered whether he could translate the Steadicam technology into a spoon to help his grandmother eat. One of Dewan’s friends offered to connect him to the University of Oklahoma’s Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering to see if their engineers could help develop Steadispoon.
At first, Dewan worked with engineers at OU to downsize the Steadicam technology into a
motorized Steadispoon. The product they came up with worked, but was too big for Dewan’s hands. Dewan, who is 6 feet tall, figured if the spoon was uncomfortable in his palm, it wouldn’t fit into his grandmother’s, much less anyone else’s.
Then, in 2020, Grand June passed away. Dewan was faced with a decision: Did he want to keep going with Steadispoon?
“I thought, man, I don’t know if I want to do this anymore,” he said. “Because the person who I wanted to help, I can’t help anymore.”
While going through Grand June’s will and belongings, Dewan saw that she had donated much of her property and savings to support her community. That struck a chord with Dewan: She had dedicated her life to helping people.
He decided to give Steadispoon another go. While the product could no longer help his grandmother, Dewan hoped it could make a difference in the lives of patients like her.
During Dewan’s sophomore year, the engineering team tried an all-mechanical approach to the spoon. No motors, no sensors. It would be harder to create. But if they could do it, the spoons would be cheaper and easier to produce.
After five prototypes, the team came up with a better Steadispoon. Its built-in mechanisms stabilize tremors in all three dimensions, with no charging or batteries required.
This year, OU engineers tested the spoon with Parkinson’s patients. They brought five patients to a lab at OU, put a bowl of cereal in front of them and asked them to simulate eating. The engineers analyzed 3D data on how well Steadispoon helped patients stabilize their tremors compared to a normal spoon.
The engineers found that Steadispoon performed at 95% the efficacy of the leading motorized spoon on the market. Since Steadispoon has no motors, it can be easily 3D-printed and sold at a cheaper price.
Dewan wants to improve
Steadispoon’s design and efficacy using feedback from the test with Parkinson’s patients. Once that’s done, the team can start manufacturing spoons.
While spreading the word about Steadispoon, Dewan was touched by how many people connected personally with his mission. So many of the people he talked with had family members dealing with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, arthritis or other conditions that lead to shaky hands and grip.
“That’s been the most rewarding part for me,” he said, “to see that this is a problem that everybody sees, and that everybody wants to help solve.”