Customized Textile Capacitive Insole Sensor for Center of Pressure Analysis

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Wearable Technology
• Sensor Development

Background:

• Center of pressure (COP) is a key metric in human locomotion analysis.
• Accurate measurement of plantar pressure (PP) and COP trajectory is crucial for understanding gait.
• Existing systems for PP and COP measurement can be expensive and cumbersome.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a cost-effective, lightweight insole-type textile capacitive sensor (I-TCPs).
• To analyze plantar pressure distribution and center of pressure trajectory using the developed I-TCPs.
• To compare the accuracy of I-TCPs against a gold-standard system (F-scan).

Main Methods:

• Development of insole-type textile capacitive sensors (I-TCPs).
• Static baseline tests and dynamic gait experiments at self-selected comfortable and fast speeds.
• Comparison of I-TCPs pressure data with F-scan measurements.

Main Results:

• I-TCPs successfully recognized plantar pressure segments at different gait speeds.
• In comfortable gait speed, average RMSE was 1.29 ± 0.47 mm for COPx and 12.55 ± 5.08 mm for COPy.
• COP correlation with F-scan was 0.54 ± 0.09 for COPx and 0.92 ± 0.04 for COPy, with COPy showing stronger correlation.

Conclusions:

• The developed I-TCPs offer a viable, cost-effective solution for analyzing plantar pressure and center of pressure.
• The sensor demonstrates good accuracy and correlation with existing systems, suitable for various gait speeds.
• Findings support future applications in rehabilitation engineering, ICT devices, and smart wearable sensors.