Sensor-Laden Shoes Being Designed for Elderly and Others to Avoid Falls

Bioengineering students at Rice University are developing a device to assist the eldery and help others avoid falls.

The students expect  what currently exists as a mass of wires, circuits, sensors, and motors will soon represent a simple powered insole that can be fitted into any shoe to offer extra tactile sensation to enhance the motor skills of a wearer.

That sensory feedback could prevent a fall. For a number of elderly and patients with diabetes who might have impaired sensation in their extremities, the insole can be a lifesaver.

The team comprising of senior bioengineering majors Megan Kehoe, Yuqi Tang, Suzanne Wen, Daniel Zhang and Allen Hu, are working along with faculty adviser Eric Richardson to meet the challenge posed by Dr. Mehdi Razavi, director of electrophysiology clinical research at the Texas Heart Institute. Razavi had asked students working on their mandatory capstone projects at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen to discover a way to assist his patients keep their balance.

The student research team named themselves “All the Feels” and solved the problem by dividing the foot into four regions. Under each they kept a sensor that measures the pressure on the foot, which is used to establish the amount of tactile sensation the user should feel. Above each sensor they positioned a vibrating motor, similar to that found inside a cellphone, to give added sensation to the wearer.

They hope wearers will in due course learn to process the feedback instinctively and correct their strides automatically to navigate uneven or terrain stairs.

We’ve designed the system so it can be adjusted to the patient’s needs and degree of peripheral neuropathy.

Kehoe

You’ll feel exactly where you’re applying pressure. The amount of vibration is proportional to the amount of pressure: If you apply a lot, you’ll feel a lot; if you apply just a little pressure, you get just a little vibration.

Wen

The four motor-sensor combinations under each foot function with total independence and were positioned based on the regions of the foot that are most vital for balance control.

How you respond to the vibrations shouldn’t be a conscious decision. Your nervous system should react instantaneously.

Kehoe

The sensors and motors are housed for the moment in the center of a one-size-fits-all sandal for testing purposes, but the students hope that all the elements, including the power supply and a custom circuit board, can be miniaturized. That way, a user will be able to transfer them between pairs of shoes.

The team will exhibit their invention at the George R. Brown School of Engineering Design Showcase on April 13. Over 80 teams will compete for cash prizes at the annual event, which will be open to the public from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Tudor Fieldhouse on the Rice campus.