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Embedded sensor insole for wireless measurement of gait parameters

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Abstract

This work presents the development of a portable, wireless activity monitoring system for the estimation of biomechanical gait parameters. The system uses a pair of instrumented insoles able to measure pressure from different points of the foot including four commercial piezoresistive pressure sensors and a three-axis accelerometer, all together integrated in the insole to determine foot forces during stance and swing phases. The system includes two kinds of analysis data, one on line with a RF communications to a computer, and another off line reading the data from SD memory card. Our system has been validated and tested in different trials, extracting several features during walking for ten participants by means of the combined information from the two kinds of sensors. With the combined data from the complete set of sensors, we can obtain highly valuable information on foot movement during the non-contact period, such as supination or pronation characteristics or anomalous movement during flight time. From our preliminary results, the variation of the lateral acceleration of the foot seems to be correlated with the amount of supination.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank José L. González Montesinos (Associate professor in Physical and Sports Activity) for his tips on fixing the pressure sensor in the instrumented insole and Carlos J. Carvajal Rodríguez (M.Sc. in Sports Science) for collaborating in data analysis. This work was funded by Junta de Andalucía (Spain), under Project P10-TIC5997. This project was partially supported by European Regional Development Funds (ERDF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ECsens, Departamento de Electrónica y Tecnología de Computadores, ETSIIT, Universidad de Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Fernando Martínez-Martí, María Sofía Martínez-García, Santiago G. García-Díaz, Javier García-Jiménez, Alberto J. Palma & Miguel A. Carvajal

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  1. Fernando Martínez-Martí
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  2. María Sofía Martínez-García
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  3. Santiago G. García-Díaz
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  4. Javier García-Jiménez
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  5. Alberto J. Palma
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  6. Miguel A. Carvajal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fernando Martínez-Martí.

Additional information

A preliminary version of this work was presented at the conference “IWBBIO 2013, Proceedings Granada, 18–20 March, 2013 [1]"

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Martínez-Martí, F., Martínez-García, M.S., García-Díaz, S.G. et al. Embedded sensor insole for wireless measurement of gait parameters. Australas Phys Eng Sci Med 37, 25–35 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13246-013-0236-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13246-013-0236-7

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