Development of a Prototype E-Textile Sock.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to design and develop a sensorized sock in Electronic Textile (ET), SWEET-Sock. The device has been realized by three textile sensor placed in a specific points of plantar arch and an accelerometer unit, both embedded and connected by conductive thread. The sensors allows the acquisition of plantar pressure and acceleration signals deriving from the motion of the lower limbs. The detected biosignals have been condictionated by a voltage divider and then were acquired through a LilyPad Arduino microcontroller and transmitted using the Simblee BLE technology to a custom made mobile app. Data were afterwards uploaded through a smartphone on a dropbox cloud where a custom made MATLAB GUI platform has been developed for further digital signal processing of main biomechanical parameters of clinical interest in postural and gait analysis.