Insole Fall Prevention Device

Falls among the aging population occur every single day, with 1 in every 5 resulting in some injury and 300,000 hospitalized every year with a hip fracture [1]. The most popular and effective way to mitigate these falls is through physical therapist intervention. However, with the increased popularity in telerehab, many patients at risk for falls cannot accurately convey their gait tendencies to their physical therapists from the comfort of their home or while not in direct contact with the PT. A device like an insole, implanted with force sensors, which measures different parts of a patient’s foot, could convey gait and walking patterns to a device via bluetooth, which could then be analyzed by the PT or an algorithm. This would greatly benefit those at risk for falls and help patients understand how to change their gait in order to reduce fall risk. This project aims to develop a shoe insole prototype that can be worn anywhere that continuously monitors certain gait parameters and directly conveys the data to a smartphone app via bluetooth. This document contains a background section with motivation for the project including similar devices, technical literature, and regulations, an objectives section with specific project boundaries, customer needs, and engineering specs, and a project management section including design process, deliverables, and timeline