Xybernaut Wearable Computers Assist Individuals with Parkinson's
Disease; PARREHA Program Achieves Remarkable Gains in Walking,
Situational Awareness and Coordination F.

February 27, 2003 09:43 AM

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XYBR $0.41 -0.02 -3.6%

Xybernaut Wearable Computers Assist Individuals with Parkinson's
Disease; PARREHA Program Achieves Remarkable Gains in Walking,
Situational Awareness and Coordination

FAIRFAX, Va., Feb 27, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Xybernaut Corporation
(NASDAQ:XYBR), a leader in the wearable computer industry, today
announced that its wearable computing solutions are helping
Parkinson's Disease sufferers gain significant improvements in
coordination, mobility (particularly walking), awareness and
lifestyle.

These results were achieved during multinational programs conducted
by teams of experts from academia, clinical medicine, government and
commercial organizations to determine how mobile computing
technologies could benefit Parkinson's sufferers.

Participant-organizations include Xybernaut and members of the
PARREHA Consortium ( http://www.parreha.com/ ) -- an organization
founded by Parkinson's researchers from France, Germany, Greece,
Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The PARREHA Project is led by
Oxford Computer Consultants Ltd. (UK) with participation by 7
companies and organizations such as Europark -- a PARREHA Project
group based in Germany.

The structured program has been evolving over the past three years.
The initial phase was to determine which advanced computing
technologies could offer benefits to Parkinson's disease patients.
Evaluations concentrated on improvements in coordination and
lifestyle quality. Subsequent phases are concentrating on the joint
program's main goal -- helping sufferers by identifying and
prioritizing best practices in applying mobile technologies in the
fight against Parkinson's. Significant results have been attained in
assisting Parkinson's patients with coordination and mobility --
particularly standing, sitting and walking.

Initially, the program utilized laptop computers. The program
coordinators quickly realized laptops were too cumbersome and
actually impeded the mobility of the PD users. Searching for better
alternative computing platforms, the PARREHA teams discovered
Xybernaut, purchased five of the Company's Mobile Assistant wearable
computers and decided to conduct its subsequent clinical evaluations
using Xybernaut wearable computers.

"The fact that Xybernaut technologies are actually designed to be
worn by the user, made them a much more flexible computing
solutions," stated Dr. Reynold Greenlaw, Oxford Computer Consultants
Ltd. "Combine this increased usability with the MA's full PC
computing capabilities and we realized that Xybernaut wearable
computers offered a much more sophisticated, more flexible and more
powerful foundation from which to continue our ongoing efforts to
assist these patients."

Studies by the Miami-based National Parkinson Foundation report that
more than 1.5 million Americans suffer from the disease, which
includes 10 percent of all Americans over 60(1). Separately, PARREHA
Project research shows that nearly 200,000 Germans have Parkinson's
disease. The Consortium believes that a large percentage of this
population can benefit from the use of wearable computing solutions.

Clinical research shows that certain types of visual information
(also referred to as visual cues), when combined with human sensory
data, greatly enhanced patients' coordination while walking. Acting
on this previous data, PERREHA created software programs designed to
overlay electronic visual cues with human sensory data.

These applications, when combined with Xybernaut wearable computers
and presented to patients using Xybernaut head mounted display (HMD)
technologies, greatly enhanced patients' awareness, motor skills and
coordination -- specifically related to walking. To-date, this
integrated wearable computing solution has been utilized for
approximately one year with compelling results. PERREHA has now begun
presenting its results to medical and scientific communities.

"The ability to blend actual sensory information with meaningful
computer data is critical to helping Parkinson's patients. This
benefit is enhanced further if the integrated information can be
presented to the user while he or she is out-and-about during their
daily routine," stated Dr. Edwin Vogt chief research and development
officer for Xybernaut and director of the Company's University
Programs. "Enhanced situational awareness, whether it be in medical
applications such as the PERREHA program or the many military
programs in which we are involved, is clearly a critical capability,"
added Vogt.

"Xybernaut unique wearable computing products offer true mobility and
are manufactured to operate with the majority of industry-standard
applications," added Dietmar Wessel, PARREHA representative for
Europark. "Our belief is that this type of computing solution will
greatly enhance the quality of life for Parkinson's patients."

Xybernaut University Programs have grown quickly in recent years as
wearable technologies continue to become more integral components of
enterprise computing. At this time, more than 46 separate
universities are conducting more than 100 programs in North America,
Europe and SE Asia/Pacific Rim.

Xybernaut University Programs are designed to allow participants to
be on the cutting edge of practical technology while providing
Xybernaut revenue opportunities in both the near and long-term.
Academic institutions and/or tenured individuals interested in the
Xybernaut university program should contact Xybernaut at
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(1) Mitchell SL, Kiely DK, Kiel DP, Lipsitz LA; The epidemiology,
clinical characteristics, and natural history of older nursing home
residents with a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease, Journal of
Geriatrics, 1996; 44: 394- 9. About Xybernaut

Xybernaut Corporation is an established provider of wearable/mobile
computing hardware, software and services, bringing communications
and full-function computing power in a hands-free design to people
when and where they need it. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia,
Xybernaut has offices and subsidiaries in Europe (Germany) and Asia
(Japan). Xybernaut's Web site is at http://www.xybernaut.com

Xybernaut, the Xybernaut logo and Mobile Assistant(R) V (MA(R) are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Xybernaut Corporation in the
USA and other countries. All other brand and product names are or may
be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of,
their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the
"Act"). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the
words "plan," "confident that," "believe," "scheduled," "expect," or
"intend to," and similar conditional expressions are intended to
identify forward- looking statements within the meaning of the Act
and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Act. Such
statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and actual
results could differ materially from those expressed in any of the
forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but
are not limited to, market conditions, the availability of components
and successful production of the Company's products, general
acceptance of the Company's products and technologies, competitive
factors, timing, and other risks described in the Company's SEC
reports and filings.

Third party statements contained herein and information contained on
any third party website are not endorsed by or adopted by Xybernaut,
nor has their accuracy been verified by Xybernaut.

CONTACT: Xybernaut Corporation

Michael Binko, 703/631-6925

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URL: http://www.businesswire.com

SOURCE: Macro*World Investor
http://www.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=55905241

Reference:

Parreha
http://www.atechb.com/phsres.html

OCC's Virtual Reality Device Helps Parkinson's Patients
http://www.oxfordcc.co.uk/news/2002/EuroNews-Parreha.htm

OCC's Software on European "Must See" List
http://www.oxfordcc.co.uk/news/2002/News-Parreha-wow.htm

Study: Wearable computers help Parkinson's sufferers
http://www.mobilevillage.com/news/2003.02.28/parkinsons.htm

* * *
Murray Charters <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.geocities.com/murraycharters/

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