Google buys Lift Labs, makers of spoon that helps people with tremors

Google has acquired the maker of a hi-tech spoon that helps people suffering from neurodegenerative tremors to eat, the internet company's latest foray into the healthcare and biotechnology market.

The company was joining the Google division which focuses on projects such as self-driving cars and drones and which has a Life Sciences group, Google said on Wednesday.

Google did not say how much it paid for Lift Labs, which maskes the tremor cancellation spoon.

A sensor-packed handle on the spoon, which sells for US$295, detects the hand tremors that afflict people with Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, and uses technology to stabilise itself.

Google said it would also explore how Lift's technology "could be used in other ways to improve the understanding and management of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and essential tremor".

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has said that he has a higher-than-average chance of contracting Parkinson's disease, which afflicted his mother.