The TikTok page of Jimmy Choi is filled with fun videos of himself doing one-armed pushups, holding planks with weights placed on his back and climbing ropes.
Fans of Choi had noticed that even before he begins his feats of strength and endurance, his hands are shaking. It was revealed that Choi has Parkinson's disease, a disorder that targets the central nervous system and causes tremors. Choi often posts about what it is like to live with the disease.
Parkinson's meds dilemma
One of Choi's daily struggles comes in the shape of the pills that he takes in order to manage his tremors. They are very tiny, thus making it difficult to grasp them with his trembling hands, according to CBC.
In December 2020, Choi posted a video showing his struggle to grab a pill from a container. That specific video had immediately set off a domino effect, thus inspiring engineers, designers and hobbyists across the platform to create a better pill bottle for those with tremors and other motor disorders.
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Choi's video made its way to the For You page of Brian Alldridge, a videographer whose page had consisted mostly of Snapple facts.
Even though he had no product design experience, Choi's struggle struck him so much that he set out to fix it. Alldridge started sketching designs for a 3D-printable bottle that would remove the need to dig for an individual pill.
Alldridge learned Fusion 360 3D modeling software to do 3D-printable objects. He then posted a TikTok with a design for a more accessible pill bottle.
The design shows a rotating base that isolates a single pill, then it can be dispensed through a chute to a small opening at the top, according to Free Think.
Printing solution
Alldridge put out a call on TikTok because he does not have a 3D printer himself, he seeked someone to try printing the design. The next day, Alldridge's video raked in thousands of views, numerous people volunteering to print the bottle and comments.
One of the people who responded is Antony Sanderson. He printed a copy and he stayed up for hours sanding down the pieces to get the bottle to work. As soon as it was proven that the design had potential, other people joined in to fine-tune it, thus fixing up the printing issue and making it spill proof.
Choi has been excited about the device and he found out that it cuts down the amount of time that it takes for him to grab a pill and it reduces the frustration and the anxiety that comes with it.
Stress makes the symptoms of Parkinson's worse, but with the newly designed bottle, Choi said that the anxiety level goes away, according to Good News Network.
Mechanical enginner David Exler began sending bottles out to other people in need. He then started a fundraising push through TikTok in order to rasie money for Michael J. Fox Foundation, so when someone orders a bottle on Etsy for $5, he send the money to the foundation.
So far, Exler reached his goal of 50 bottles, and he plans to continue donating as he prints and he sends more.
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Written by Sieeka Khan
