Smart Insole Based on Flexi Force and Flex Sensor for Monitoring Different Body Postures

Abstract

This study aims to fabricate smart insoles using wireless Flexi force and bend sensing technology. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film was chosen as the substrate to hold all the sensors. The developed smart insole has a three-layer structure (insole-PVC layer-fabric layer) and is calibrated in an isolation laboratory to evaluate its measurement performance. One male volunteer subject exhibited four different body postures, namely tree pose, forward-leaning, squatting, and forward folding pose. Changes in pressure distribution were considered to be similar for the forward, squat, and forward-folded positions. When subjects performed a full squat, the flex sensor exhibited maximum flexion during the squat position, and the flex sensor response against the squat pose was found to be higher by about 18.18% than in the forward lean, respectively. The tree pose has the highest error rate at the first metatarsal, about 18.6%, of which the maximum absolute relative error of the sensor is less than 5%. Plantar pressure distribution and body posture measurements were successfully validated using Flexi force and flex sensors embedded in the smart insole. The smart insole proposed in this research work has broader prospects for clinical application.

The Role of Emergent Technologies in the Dynamic and Kinematic Assessment of Human Movement in Sport and Clinical Applications

“…The highest value of nanogenerators' voltage outputs measured during walking was 41 V. It has also been possible to recognize differences in different speeds and limp walking performed during the experiment through the multiscale entropy analysis of stride intervals. Some other authors [94] proposed a smart insole to monitor other body postures, using four wireless Flexi force sensors and a flex sensor embedded within the insole, made of Polyvinyl Chloride. Results from this study, where four different body positions (tree, leaning forward, squat, and forward fold postures) were performed by a subject, showed that the feet pressure measured through the insoles changed during each body posture modification, growing on the first, fifth, and third metatarsals.…”

Monitoring and Correction of Human Joints Posture using Flex sensor

“…This part of the vertebra will provide support and base for the movement of head and neck. This region is branched up with different group of muscles that provide mechanical strength and locomotion of the neck [11][12][13][14]. Data acquisition The data is acquired at a time interval of every 70 seconds.…”