Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Research Center E. Piaggio, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Feb 24;22(5):1761. doi: 10.3390/s22051761.
We describe the development and preliminary evaluation of an innovative low-cost wearable device for gait analysis. We have developed a sensorized sock equipped with 32 piezoresistive textile-based sensors integrated in the heel and metatarsal areas for the detection of signals associated with the contact pressures generated during walking phases. To build the sock, we applied a sensing patch on a commercially available sock. The sensing patch is a stretchable circuit based on the resistive matrix method, in which conductive stripes, based on conductive inks, are coupled with piezoresistive fabrics to form sensing elements. In our sensorized sock, we introduced many relevant improvements to overcome the limitations of the classical resistive matrix method. We preliminary evaluated the sensorized sock on five healthy subjects by performing a total of 80 walking tasks at different speeds for a known distance. Comparison of step count and step-to-step frequency versus reference measurements showed a high correlation between the estimated measure and the real one.
我们描述了一种创新的低成本可穿戴式步态分析设备的开发和初步评估。我们开发了一种带有 32 个压阻式纺织传感器的传感器袜子，这些传感器集成在脚跟和跖骨区域，用于检测与行走阶段产生的接触压力相关的信号。为了制作袜子，我们在市售的袜子上应用了一个传感贴片。传感贴片是一种基于电阻矩阵方法的可拉伸电路，其中基于导电油墨的导电条与压阻织物结合形成传感元件。在我们的传感器袜子中，我们引入了许多相关的改进措施来克服经典电阻矩阵方法的局限性。我们在五名健康受试者身上初步评估了这款传感器袜子，让他们在已知距离上以不同速度总共进行了 80 次行走任务。对步数和步频与参考测量值的比较表明，估计值与实际值之间具有高度相关性。
