All-Textile Pressure Sensitive Sock for Mobile Health Applications

Monitoring plantar pressure continuously is relevant in different applications, e.g., in gait monitoring, foot ulcer prevention, and more. Current solutions include pressure sensitive insoles that are expensive and cannot fully conform to the feet or shoes surface (e.g., in orthotics for diabetic patients). We propose a soft and flexible smart sock to monitor pressure continuously and unobtrusively. The sock features eight textile-based capacitive pressure sensors on the load-bearing areas of the foot. Electromechanical characterization showed suitability of the sensors for the intended application (high pressure up to 500 kPa). Preliminary tests on a healthy participant walking with the sock showed good agreement with commercial smart insoles. This is the first example of a fully textile smart sock with more than four capacitive pressure sensors for in-shoe plantar pressure measurement. The presented prototype shows potential as an inexpensive and comfortable solution for day-to-day monitoring of plantar pressure across various applications.