A new smart insole has been developed to monitor how people walk and provide early warnings for a range of medical conditions.
The Ohio State University Assistant Professor Jinghua Li said the insole was constructed using 22 small pressure sensors and fuelled by small solar panels on the tops of shoes.
Assistant Professor Li said the system offered real-time health tracking based on how a person walked, which was a biomechanical process as unique as a human fingerprint.
She said the system could help users improve posture and provide early warnings for conditions from plantar fasciitis to Parkinson’s disease.
“Our bodies carry lots of useful information that we’re not even aware of.
“These statuses also change over time, so it’s our goal to use electronics to extract and decode those signals to encourage better self-health care checks.”
Assistant Professor Li said the data collected by the insole could be transmitted via Bluetooth to a smartphone for quick and detailed analysis.
“Our device is innovative in terms of high resolution, spatial sensing, self-powering capability, and its ability to combine with machine learning algorithms,” she said.
Read the full study: A wireless, self-powered smart insole for gait monitoring and recognition via nonlinear synergistic pressure sensing.
