It’s a rare opportunity to speak to Zhang (right), who has been in high demand since the BBC series aired in December. Zhang, whose day job involves inventing cutting-edge technology at Microsoft’s research centre in Cambridge, manages to break away from the photoshoot, makes herself a tea and swaps places with Lawton, whose turn it is in front of the camera. I just thought: ‘ Wow, this is someone who not only understands the technology behind things but also understands the humans behind things ’. And she was incredibly human about the process. It didn ’ t look like it had come out of a Parkinson ’ s magazine for an old person.
She sussed that I wanted something that was cool, and that my boyfriend would be jealous of, because he ’ s all about technology. The watch has an interchangeable strap that ’ s so me, the fact that it can have different colours. “ Haiyan is awesome, ” Lawton says when Microsoft Research ’ s Innovation Director is out of earshot. And then when it carried on working …”Īt that moment Haiyan Zhang, who invented the watch as part of a research team, walks through the door and greets Lawton warmly before she has to sit for more photos. I couldn ’ t really get my head around it. What if it didn ’ t work? So when it did work, I thought ‘ OK, that ’ s amazing ’. Lawton, a creative director, was wearing the watch (top) when she put pen to paper for a recent BBC documentary called The Big Life Fix, which changed her life forever. She is sitting in Microsoft ’ s office in London, describing the moment she first used the “ Emma Watch ” – a wrist-worn device that aims to significantly reduce the almost constant limb tremors associated with Parkinson ’ s.
”Įmma Lawton is 33, and one of the 2% of people with Parkinson ’ s who have been diagnosed with the neurological condition before they are 40.
There was so much fear and emotion hanging in that moment. “ It was incredibly traumatic but exciting at the same time.