Exhibition at Museum of Science & Technology

The Vienna Museum of Science & Technology has opened a new round of its presentation format “Innovation Corner”. In collaboration with the Lower Austrian technology funding agency tecnet equity and the technology incubator accent, the museum presents outstanding projects from the fields of medical technology and life sciences.

A project of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences titled “VReeze” that explores a phenomenon of Parkinson’s Disease using virtual reality (VR) is part of the exhibition.

Gaining a Better Understanding of Gait Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative disease frequently accompanied by gait disorder in advanced stages. This gait disorder causes the affected person to be temporarily unable to put one foot in front of the other. The so-called “Freezing of Gait” (FOG) restricts patients’ mobility and increases the risk of falling and hurting oneself.

While the diverse triggers for this are known, they cannot be reliable evoked, e.g., in a lab setting for research purposes or therapy, which makes research on this phenomenon difficult worldwide. The project “VReeze” initiated by the St. Pölten UAS, the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, and the University Hospital of St. Pölten takes on this challenge with the help of virtual reality (VR): Using VR glasses, various triggers that occur in everyday life can be simulated nearly everywhere, for example, passing through narrow corridors, crossing thresholds, or walking through crowds.

The objective of this highly innovative project is the development of a validated “open-source virtual reality toolbox” that is ultimately supposed to be freely available for scientists and therapists (and therapy evaluation) worldwide in order to deliberately trigger the “freezing-of-gait” phenomenon and be able to better examine and treat it in future.

Senior Researcher Tarique Siragy from the Center for Digital Health and Social Innovation at the St. Pölten UAS is the head of the project which receives funding from the Gesellschaft für Forschungsförderung Niederösterreich m.b.H. (Lower Austrian research funding association).

Platform for Start-Ups

Austria is home to numerous start-ups that do an outstanding job in their diverse fields. The “Innovation Corner” at the Vienna Museum of Science & Technology provides a platform for these brilliant minds to present their ideas to a broad public. In this round, ten future-oriented projects from Lower Austria are presented that range from ground-breaking solutions in ophthalmology to medical technologies for space travel and diagnostic innovations that have the potential to sustainably improve the provision of healthcare.

“Lower Austria has evolved into an important centre of research and innovation”, explained Lower Austrian Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner at the opening of the exhibition. “Our region is home to a multitude of renowned research institutions and innovative companies that decisively contribute to the development of new technologies and solutions. With the exhibition format ‘Innovation Corner’, we demonstrate some of the outstanding new products and solutions that are being developed in the Lower Austrian research institutions and start-ups. The idea is to instil an enthusiasm for our region in young researchers and business founders.”

Doris Agneter, CEO of tecnet equity, emphasises: “One of our objectives is to make innovations visible. For this reason, we have been collaborating with research institutions and start-ups for many years in order to accompany them on their path from excellent research results to useful innovations.” Michael Moll, CEO of accent, adds: “The contributions collected here in the ‘Innovation Corner’ serve to illustrate and make tangible how research and innovation improve our everyday lives.”

Exhibition

The exhibition is on display at the Vienna Museum of Science & Technology until 29 September 2024 and offers exciting insights into the future of medical technology and life sciences.

• Project VReeze