ELECTRONIC SENSOR SYSTEM FOR USE WITH FOOTWEAR

• US 20170027512A1
• Filed: 07/29/2016
• Published: 02/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wiivv Wearables, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Wiivv Wearables, Inc.
• Inventors: Yuan, Kaiwen, Lawson, Colin Michael, Bewza, Enger Lasada, Hargovan, Shamil Mahendra, Jadavji, Louis-Victor, Aggarwal, Manuj
• Granted Patent: US 10,470,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 17/006 multilayered
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/34 with electrical or electronic arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0247 Pressure sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/046 in a matrix array
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02444 Details of sensor A61B5/02427 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1038 Measuring plantar pressure during gait
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/112 Gait analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6807 Footwear
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6812 Orthopaedic devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6829 Foot or ankle
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/21 characterised by their sensors, purposes or types
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/212 using sensors worn by the player, e.g. for measuring heart beat or leg activity
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/19 Sporting applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 : using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/86 : Performing a diagnostic of the sensing device
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 : Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

The disclosed technique relates to an insert for footwear and to a composite orthotic insole comprising said insert, wherein the insert is embedded with a plurality of force (or pressure) sensors, and may be used to provide feedback on important information regarding the wearer'"'"'s gait biomechanics. The layer of sensors may be used to assist in monitoring the wearer'"'"'s health via foot pressure tracking. The insole can use a relative large number of sensors, which together provide broad coverage of the human foot impact area.

Claims

1. A flexible, multi-layered insole for footwear, the insole comprising:

a surface layer that binds the insole together and arranged to contact a foot of a user;

a pressure-sensitive resistor layer that becomes more conductive as pressure is applied;

a sensor layer including a plurality of sensors arranged laterally across the insole, each sensor having a unique identifier;

an air gap layer between the pressure-sensitive resistor layer and the sensor layer, the air gap layer configured to collapse at least partially when the insole receives a footfall to thereby cause contact between the pressure-sensitive resistor layer and one or more of the sensors and cause each said one or more of the sensor pads to output a respective signal; and

a microcontroller coupled to receive and process the signals received from the sensor pads.

2. The insole of claim 1, further comprising:

a wireless communicator communicatively coupled with the microcontroller and configured to transmit processed signals from the microcontroller to external devices.

3. The insole of claim 1, further comprising:

a multiplexer to receive the signals from the sensors and selectively output a subset of the signal to the microcontroller.

4. The insole of claim 1, wherein each of the sensors of the sensor layer includes a contact that directs the corresponding to a central location on the insole.

5. The insole of claim 4, wherein the central location is an arch section of the insole.

6. The insole of claim 1, wherein the sensors are arranged in a repeating pattern across the sensor layer.

7. The insole of claim 6, wherein the sensor layer contains a positive correlation between a number of sensors to a foot size of insole, and a static density of sensors despite variance in the foot size of insole.

8. The insole of claim 1, further comprising:

a load column affixed between the pressure-sensitive resistor layer and the sensor layer in the air gap layer that increases the amount of pressure required to collapse the air gap layer.

9. The insole of claim 1, further comprising one or more of:

a geolocation sensor;

a thermometer;

an accelerometer;

an ultrasonic sensor;

a heartbeat sensor;

or

a gyroscope.

10. A footwear insert system comprising:

a plurality of pressure switches arranged on a flexible substantially planar member, each of the pressure switches including a variable resistor that varies based on a magnitude of pressure applied; and

a footwear insert shell that includes an internal volume containing the plurality of pressure switches.

11. The insert system of claim 10, further comprising:

a microcontroller which receives and processes signals from the plurality of pressure switches; and

a wireless communicator communicatively coupled with the microcontroller and configured to transmit processed signals from the microcontroller to an external device.

12. The insert system of claim 11, further comprising:

a multiplexer to receive the signals from the pressure switches and selectively output a subset of the signal to the microcontroller.

13. The insert system of claim 11, wherein each of the pressure switches include a contact that directs the respective signals to a central or arch location on the insert.

14. The insert system of claim 13, wherein the central location is an arch section of the insert.

15. The insert system of claim 10, wherein the pressure switches are arranged in a repeating pattern across the flexible substantially planar member.

16. The insert system of claim 15, wherein the there is a positive correlation between a number of pressure switches to a size of the footwear insert shell, and a static density of pressure switches despite variance in the size of footwear insert shell.

17. The insert system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of pressure switches on the flexible substantially planar member are constructed including:

a pressure-sensitive resistor layer that becomes more conductive as pressure is applied;

a sensor layer including a plurality of sensors, each of the sensors having a unique identifier and upon contact with the pressure-sensitive resistor layer close a pressure switch; and

an air gap layer between the pressure-sensitive resistor layer and the sensor layer, the air gap layer configured to collapse at least partially when the insert receives a footfall to thereby cause contact between the pressure-sensitive resistor layer and one or more of the sensors and cause each said one or more of the sensor pads to output a respective signal.

18. The insert system of claim 15, further comprising:

a load column affixed between the pressure-sensitive resistor layer and the sensor layer in the air gap layer that increases the amount of pressure required to collapse the air gap layer.

19. The insert system of claim 11, further comprising one or more of the following sensors:

a geolocation sensor;

a thermometer;

an accelerometer;

an ultrasonic sensor;

a heartbeat sensor;

or

a gyroscope.

20. The insert system of claim 11, further comprising:

application software resident on the external device, the application software including instructions to receive signals transmitted from the wireless communicator and develop analytical footfall models to report to a user.

21. The insert system of claim 11, further comprising:

application software resident on the external device, wherein the external device is a gaming apparatus, and the application software including instructions to receive signals transmitted from the wireless communicator and provide user inputs to the gaming apparatus thereby influencing virtual reality simulations.

22. A method comprising:

receiving a footfall on a flexible, multi-layered insole for footwear, the footfall imparting pressure upon the insole;

the imparted pressure increasing the conductivity of a pressure sensitive resistor layer of the insole;

causing the pressure-sensitive resistor layer to at least partially collapse an air gap layer and contact one or more sensors on a sensors layer of the insole; and

completing one or more circuits between the one or more sensors and the pressure sensitive resistor layer, each completed circuit delivering a signal to a microcontroller, each signal including a unique identifier associated with each of the one or more sensors that complete the one or more circuits.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

transmitting, by a wireless communicator, processed signals from the microcontroller to an external device.

24. The insole system of claim 22, further comprising:

cutting the sensor layer to a custom insole size from a sheet of sensors having a repeating pattern of sensors, each of the sensors including a contact directed to the center of the sheet of sensors such that contacts meet at a location on the sensor sheet which is included in every cut sensor layer despite variance in insole size.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the sensor layer contains a positive correlation between a number of sensors to a foot size of insole, and a static density of sensors despite variance in the foot size of insole.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the transmitting step further includes transmitting data from integrated sensors, integrated sensors further comprising one or more of the following sensors:

a geolocation sensor;

a thermometer;

an accelerometer;

an ultrasonic sensor;

a heartbeat sensor;

or

a gyroscope.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving, by application software resident on the external device, signals transmitted from the wireless communicator; and

developing analytical footfall models to report to a user.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving, by application software resident on the external device, signals transmitted from the wireless communicator, wherein the external device is an entertainment apparatus; and

providing user inputs to the entertainment apparatus thereby influencing virtual reality simulations.

29. A flexible, sensor-equipped insole for footwear, the insole comprising:

an insole body;

one or more sensors from the list;

a geolocation sensor;

a thermometer;

an accelerometer;

an ultrasonic sensor;

a heartbeat sensor;

or

a gyroscope.

a microcontroller that receives and processes output of the one or more sensors; and

a wireless communicator that receives microcontroller outputs and subsequently transmits said microcontroller outputs to external devices.