An effect on walk and plantar contact area from ice immersion approach

Abstract

This paper describes a method of measuring a plantar skin contact area and a plantar incipient partial slip in order to clarify the relation between a plantar tactile sensibility and a stabilization mechanism for slip. The information of the plantar sense stimulus during walk had been not acquired in the conventional walk analysis. The meaning of plantar slip measurement is explained and the plantar skin deformation is measured by the image processing using the developed measurement device. An increase of the plantar skin contact area by using ice immersion approach suggests the relation between plantar tactile stimulus and gait pattern.