Walking aid with haptic feedback for combined use with a smart foot orthosis
S. Resch, A. Röll, A. Malech, V. Schwind, D. Sanchez-Morillo, D. Völz
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AbstractElderly people often face the risk of falls, which increases the need for walking aids to ensure mobility and safety. The occurrence of further injuries requires the use of additional orthopedic aids (e.g., foot orthoses). Wearing such an orthopedic aid also impairs the natural gait pattern, which leads to increased instability in older patients. This highlights the need for innovative solutions for assistive smart walking aids. Doan et al., for example, presented a smart walking aid for fall detection that can detect falls based on machine learning with an accuracy of 99.62% (Doan et al., 2024). This development can lead to improvements in home care and remote health monitoring technologies. However, a solution that allows the combined use of an intelligent walking aid with a smart foot orthosis to provide patients with active feedback does not exist. Based on the identified research gap, we propose the technical development of an augmented walking aid with haptic feedback that enables direct communication of sensor data with a smart foot orthosis. Providing additional feedback in case of problems with the foot orthosis is particularly important for patients with neuropathy in the feet (such as diabetic foot syndrome), for which neural feedback is not possible. Our approach enables direct haptic feedback through vibrations on the handle of the walking aid when acute problems are detected by the smart foot orthosis. The system achieves this by continuously monitoring relevant gait parameters and pressure distributions in the foot orthosis. This should support the proactive adaptation of gait problems and increase safety when using assistive technologies for older people.Keywords: intelligent walking aid, smart foot orthosis, haptic feedback, health care monitoring, prevention
S. Resch, A. Röll, A. Malech, V. Schwind, D. Sanchez-Morillo, D. Völz (2024). Walking aid with haptic feedback for combined use with a smart foot orthosis. Gerontechnology, 23(2), 1-1
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2024.23.s.917.pp