Ontwikkeling van een alarmsysteem tegen overbelasting van het been

Every year hundred thousands of people undergo knee replacement surgery in the United States alone. These patients, and many more that undergo other orthopedic procedures, will have to rehabilitate. As part of this rehabilitation, a patient is asked not to load the affected limb fully. The degree of allowed load is gradually increased during the rehabilitation process. The amount of allowed load on the limb is difficult to judge for a patient. This creates the possibility of overloading, increasing the rehabilitation time. A solution is a device, warning the patient for overloading of the limb. Such devices are already available but are either only suitable for in-clinic use or to expensive to be used extensively. In this project, a affordable system suitable for everyday use is developed. This system functions using a insole equipped with an piëzo-electric sensor. The sensor signal is evaluated within an ankle worn wallet. In case of overloading, the patient is warned by a vibrating signal. The system is available for under 100 euro an able to adequately warn a patient. With the use of this cheap system, patients are warned of overloading in everyday rehabilitation. This will hopefully reduce rehabilitation time because of less damage done by overloading the limb.