INTRODUCTION During rowing, foot positioning on the foot stretcher is critical to optimise muscle force transmission and boat propulsion. Following the beneficial effects of textured insoles on gait and balance, this study aims at investigating whether passive stimulation of foot mechanoreceptors induced by these insoles may contribute to improving foot loading pattern and symmetry during indoo...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of various orthotic treatments for patients with isolated medial compartment osteoarthritis. DESIGN Prospective cohort study with sequential interventions. SETTING University-affiliated hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS From December 2010 to November 2011, 10 patients with medial knee osteoarthritis were referred by orthopaedic surgeons for orthotic tre...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to determine whether insoles change standing balance on the ground in normal and flat-footed subjects. [Subjects] Twenty subjects with flatfeet and 20 subjects with normal feet were included in this study. [Methods] Body sway was evaluated based on the center of pressure while subjects stood on the ground. Body sway was measured during upright standing with t...

BACKGROUND The most common method of customizing shoe insoles to the shape and surface of the foot is to heat and then mold the materials. The effect of heating on the mechanical properties of these materials is unknown. METHODS The properties of individual and common combinations of insole materials were tested before and after heating. Individual materials tested were soft Plastazote (SP), ...

Background Patients undergoing forefoot surgery often require specific footwear to relieve the operated area. Post-operative footwear can be very different in relation to the amount of weight born by the forefoot [1,2]. While these special shoes are intended to be worn for short periods following surgery, a compromise must be found between level of comfort and functionality. In this study the i...

INTRODUCTION Pressure sensitive insoles have emerged as a powerful tool for assessing the pressure distribution on the sole of a foot. The pressures measured by the insole sensors can also be combined to determine a partial set of net ground reactions (COP-center of pressure, vGRF vertical ground reaction force) (Barnett, et.al, 2000, Chesnin, et.al, 2000). Such information could conceivably be...

introduction: flat foot is one of the most common disorders which not only influences the performance of the foot, but also affects the alignments of the ankle, knee and hip joints. the performance of flat arched differs from that of normal subjects during walking. however, there is not enough information in the literature regarding the difference between standing stability. moreover, the influ...

Biomechanical energy harvesting is a feasible solution for powering wearable sensors by directly driving electronics or acting as wearable self-powered sensors. A wearable insole that not only can harvest energy from foot pressure during walking but also can serve as a self-powered human motion recognition sensor is reported. The insole is designed as a sandwich structure consisting of two wavy...

As a bridge between our interest in Wearable Computer systems and new performance interfaces for digital music, we have built a highly instrumented pair of sneakers for interactive dance. These shoes each measure 16 different, continuous parameters expressed by each foot and are able to transmit them wirelessly to a base station placed well over 30 meters away, updating all values up to 60 time...