Development of wireless insole foot pressure data acquisition device

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop a wireless insole foot pressure acquisition device to measure and analyze foot planter pressure during various physical activities. Developed system consists of a pressure insole with four capacitive pressure sensors for each foot. Entire system is developed in house indigenously. Sensors are placed at four foot pressure points and interfaced with microcontroller and wireless acquisition board. Sensors are interfaced with dedicated electronics board made of Capacitance to Digital IC which converts change in capacitance due to foot pressure to an equivalent digital readout. Graphical User Interface is provided for different data curve plot, testing of pressure insole, quantifying force and pressure. A mobile and versatile pressure insole for analysis of foot pressure distribution and magnitude provides useful information to diagnose various foot disorders. Planter pressure measurement during standing, walking and other activity can demonstrate biomechanics of abnormal foot, can analyze diabetic offloading, sports medicine, pre and post treatment evaluation and yield measurement to track distance progression.

Design and Implementation of Wearable Device for Neuropathic Diabetic Foot Patients

“…These systems are elastic and portable which allows it a larger variety of studies with different gait analysis tasks, footwear designs, etc. Hence they are highly suggested for studying footwear design [4], [7], [10], [11]. But there are some disadvantages like the possibility of the sensor slipping; the spatial declaration of the data is low as compared to platform based systems due to smaller amount of sensors.…”

“…Figure2 shows a platform-based system. The commercial product is capacitance transducer matrix platform mounted in on the floor, this is used in medical researches for diabetes mellitus [11], [12], gait analysis [13], etc.…”

“…The Pedobarography can provide a focused and specific form of human gait analysis [9], [11]. The resulting information from plantar pressure data means the pressure on the foot membrane that the human foot experiences during day to day activities [2] which can provide support in the detection of neurological disorders.…”

A Review of Wearable Sensor Systems to Monitor Plantar Loading in the Assessment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

“…From Table III, it can be seen that while most systems are based around an insole, some take a more direct approach with sensors attached either to the shoe outsole [136] a sock [41], [138] or directly to the foot [121], [142], [145], [146]. As shown in Figure 11(a), Mazumder et al [134] placed four capacitive pressure sensors to the bottom side of the shoe.…”

“…(a) Shoe outsole based plantar load measurement system[136]; (b) smart sock knitted with eight piezoresistive sensors[138]; (c) plantar triaxial sensors directly attached onto the foot[142].…”