Insole sensor to determine gait problems or risk of falls
 

http://www.mddionline.com/article/3-...-sensor-insole

Following lower-extremity surgery, orthopedic patients must often return for check ups or physical therapy to monitor their recovery. But providers can now remotely monitor patients via their shoes.

German company Moticon’s OpenGo sensor insoles can be placed into any pair of shoes to measure weightbearing, balance, acceleration, and foot temperature. The OpenGo system incorporates 13 pressure sensors, a 3-D accelerometer, and a temperature sensor, as well integrated storage to monitor patients continuously for up to four weeks. The data collected can be streamed in real-time to a computer or mobile device or stored on an accompanying ANT+-enabled flash drive.

The company plans to switch to Bluetooth Low Energy technology for the OpenGo by the end of 2014, but Moticon CEO Maximilian Müller says it originally chose ANT+ technology for its energy efficiency. “We need low-power radio because long-term patient monitoring is only possible if energy consumption is very low,” Müller says. “Back when we started out [in 2009–2010], Bluetooth Low Energy was not available, and ‘normal’ Bluetooth is much too energy intensive.”

OpenGo insoles are currently used to analyze patients after orthopedic surgery, but in the future Moticon hopes to incorporate phone-based audio, visual, or haptic feedback into the device. This would enable OpenGo to be used for rehabilitation after lower extremity fractures or knee and hip replacements, or for patients with Parkinson’s disease or those suffering diabetic neuropathy in their lower extremities. The device could alert users or their providers of disbalances in gait, overloading of cartilage, or risk of a fall.

The mention that this device may reduce the number of falls is especially welcome.

This is an example of wearable computer technology. Microcontrollers are getting so cheap ($5 from China), as are sensors (e.g. accelerometers), that more and more things can be measured on a continuous basis. Once you can measure something, it is often just a short step to being able to improve the situation.

Other things that are likely soon include:
- tremor measurement and cancelling (see Zanpar's post in the last week);
- voice analysis, loudness detection;
- freezing detection and recovery;
- improved energy levels.

As always, the regulatory process is likely to lead to some delay and the prices may be too high for some of the devices to be affordable. But they are ripe for DIYing.

In the wider context, I can see a situation developing where focused tools are developed causing many of the bad things that we experience because of Parkinson's to cease to be a problem. The disease is not cured, but it's consequences are reduced. As an example of where this has already been done, think of the extra problems that many people with vision problems would have if spectacles had never been invented.

John