Real-time pressure mapping smart insole system based on a controllable vertical pore dielectric layer

Juan Tao,Caofeng Pan,Chunfeng Wang,Li Li,Yue Liu,Jing Li,Ming Dong,Rongrong Bao

doi:10.1038/s41378-020-0171-1

Abstract

Real-time monitoring of plantar pressure has significant applications in wearable biosensors, sports injury detection, and early diagnostics. Herein, an all-in-one insole composed of 24 capacitive pressure sensors (CPSs) with vertical pores in an elastic dielectric layer is fabricated by laser cutting. Optimized CPSs with a hexagonal configuration and a pore size of 600 μm possess good linearity over a wide detection range of 0–200 kPa with a sensitivity of 12 × 10–3 kPa−1. Then, a smart system including the all-in-one insole with the 24 CPS array, a data acquisition system with a wireless transmitter and a PC terminal with a wireless receiver is established for real-time monitoring to realize static and dynamic plantar pressure mapping. Based on this smart insole system, various standing and yoga postures can be distinguished, and variations in the center of gravity during walking can be recognized. This intelligent insole system provides great feasible supervision for health surveillance, injury prevention, and athlete training.

Highlights

With the prosperous development of the social economy, the demand for smart systems that can monitor various human physiological signals is increasingly vital for the early diagnosis or prevention of disease[1,2,3,4,5]
The results show that this intelligent insole system can monitor and distinguish different plantar pressure mappings in real time, providing potential applications in wearable medicine, sports injury detection, athlete training, sports equipment design, and so on
An insole smart system is constructed for real-time monitoring to realize pressure mapping of the foot and includes three parts: an all-in-one insole with a 24channel capacitive sensor array, a data acquisition (DAQ) circuit with a wireless transmitter, and a PC terminal with a wireless receiver, as depicted in Fig. 1a

Summary

Introduction

With the prosperous development of the social economy, the demand for smart systems that can monitor various human physiological signals is increasingly vital for the early diagnosis or prevention of disease[1,2,3,4,5]. Compared with other transmission mechanisms, capacitive pressure sensors (CPSs) possess the advantages of a simple structure, low power consumption, and easy largearea fabrication[34]. To enhance the sensitivity of capacitive sensors, pyramidal structures[35,36], micropores[37,38,39], and air gaps[40] were fabricated in the dielectric layer to obtain a suitable Young modulus or Ag nanowires[41,42] were embedded to properly

Methods

Results

Conclusion