Smart Insole
Learn how CDI’s Smart Products Engineering team developed a smart insole to help detect and prevent diabetic foot ulcers.
The Smart Products Engineering team is seeing the development of a high quality yet affordable smart insole that would help detect and prevent diabetic foot ulcers. This project is being funded by the Wound Management Innovation CRC and has also won an MDPP (Medical Device Partnering Program) grant to help improve our electronics solution.
The need to detect, treat and prevent diabetic foot ulcers
There are 415 million people with diabetes in the world; up to 25% of them will develop a diabetic foot ulcer. In Australia, $875 million is spent on diabetic foot diseases each year.
To prevent and treat diabetic ulcers, it’s paramount that high plantar pressure is detected. The International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) recommended in 2019 that podiatrists should “prescribe therapeutic footwear that has a demonstrated plantar pressure relieving effect during walking.”
To provide this evidence, affordable but accurate smart insoles were required.
Pressure-measuring insoles detect pathological high plantar pressure as well as gait impairments in real living conditions. In addition to the plantar pressure, smart insoles also measure the movement of the centre of pressure on the foot sole.
Current high-end smart insole systems are accurate, but too complicated to handle and exorbitantly expensive.
The outcome: a high resolution, low cost Smart Insole
The CDI’s Smart Insole is a serious competitor in the industry, with a high resolution and low cost. Its accuracy was validated against an industry gold standard and proven to have a similar accuracy.
To further develop our Smart Insole, we teamed up with Midori (DMI Demmel Group in Singapore) to have them screen-printed. We are currently in the process of commercialising our Smart Insole.
The intellectual property, which solves 8 common problems of smart insoles and pressure sensor arrays, is protected.
This project was funded $750k by the Wound Management Innovation CRC in early stages. In 2019, we also won an MDPP (Medical Device Partnering Program) grant to help us improve our electronics solution and provided a Market Search Report.
Project timeframe
2012-continuing
Research team and partners
- Dr Adin Tan, former PhD student on the Smart Insole Project
- Dr Udi Weizman, former PhD student on the Pressure Sensor Array Project
- Professor Franz Konstantin ‘Tino’ Fuss.
- Our collaboration partners include: Wound Management Innovation CRC, Medical Device Partnering Program and CMI Demmel Gruppe.
Smart Insole
The video by the Smart Products Engineering program in Centre for Design Innovation shows the pressure distribution and the moving centre of pressure when wearing sports shoes and jogging slowly with our Smart Insoles.
- Weizman Y, Tan AM, Fuss FK 2019: Benchmarking study of the forces and centre of pressure derived from a novel smart-insole against an existing pressure measuring insole and force plate. Measurement 142 : 48–59.
Tan AM, Fuss FK, Weizman Y, Azari MF 2015: Centre of Pressure Detection and Analysis with a High-resolution and Low-cost Smart Insole. In: Subic A, Fuss FK, Alam F, Pang TY, Takla M (Eds) The Impact of Technology on Sport VI (Procedia Engineering 112:146-151). Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Tan AM, Fuss FK, Weizman Y, Troynikov O 2015: Development of a Smart Insole for Medical and Sports Purposes. In: Subic A, Fuss FK, Alam F, Pang TY, Takla M (Eds) The Impact of Technology on Sport VI (Procedia Engineering 112:152-156). Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Weizman Y, Tan AM, Fuss FK 2018: Accuracy of Centre of Pressure Gait Measurements from Two Pressure-Sensitive Insoles. Proceedings 2018, 2(6), 277.
Tan AM, Weizman Y, Fuss FK 2018: Measurement Accuracy of the Body Weight with Smart Insoles. Proceedings 2018, 2(6), 274.
Tan AM, Fuss FK, Weizman Y, Woudstra Y, Troynikov O 2015: Design of Low Cost Smart Insole for Real Time Measurement of Plantar Pressure. Procedia Technology, 20:117-122.
See more projects from the Smart Products Engineering program
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We always welcome new partners. If you are interested in transforming ideas into commercially competitive outcomes, need the support of our research or have any other queries, contact us on +61 3 9214 6072 or email cdiadmin@swinburne.edu.au.