Flexible Iron-On Sensor Embedded in Smart Sock for Gait Event Detection

Abstract

Portable and wearable electronics for biomechanical data collection have become a growing part of everyday life. As smart technology improves and integrates into our lives, some devices remain ineffective, expensive, or difficult to access. We propose a washable iron-on textile pressure sensor for biometric data acquisition. Biometric data, such as human gait, are a powerful tool for the monitoring and diagnosis of ambulance and physical activity. To demonstrate this, our washable iron-on device is embedded into a sock and compared to gold standard force plate data. Biomechanical testing showed that our embedded sensor displayed a high aptitude for gait event detection, successfully identifying over 96% of heel strike and toe-off gait events. Our device demonstrates excellent attributes for further investigations into low-cost, washable, and highly versatile iron-on textiles for specialized biometric analysis.

AI-Assisted Insole Sensing System for Multifunctional Plantar-Healthcare Applications

“…The advent of wearable devices offers an alternative to overcome the traditional limitations of gait monitoring and enables continuous monitoring and analysis in nonlaboratory environments . Various materials, including lead zirconate titanate (PZT), aluminum nitride (AlN), zinc oxide (ZnO), silver ink, and metal materials, have exhibited outstanding performance in pressure sensing, − suitable for the development of high-performance wearable sensors in daily life. However, certain drawbacks may inevitably come to light when these sensors are implemented in real scenarios.…”