Hello all, I'm an industrial design student in Columbus, Ohio. I'm working on my senior capstone project which is about injury prevention for runners. One of my concepts that I'm looking into is a sneaker with a smart insole that tracks weight distribution with heatmapping and then sends the information in real time to the user's smartwatch for instant feedback and suggestions with AI. So I need pressure sensors and motion tracking sensors. Could someone please help me understand the process more in more simple terms, I don't really have much understand on programming or what all the tech does. I would also like to develop a working prototype if possible. What would that require? I have 10 weeks before presentations. Thank you

 

You have no room for all of that in a sneaker. And heat mapping will not work.

 

You have no room for all of that in a sneaker. And heat mapping will not work.

I've seen this idea on the market from Boogio, why would this not be possible?

 

I've seen this idea on the market from Boogio, why would this not be possible?

Hi I,
For example: puddles.
C

 

You have no room for all of that in a sneaker. And heat mapping will not work.

There is no room for everything they put in a smartwatch either but, somehow, they do it.

 

The products mentioned certainly use custom designed microcircuits. And a lot of engineering went into those designs.
So let me expand on my comment a bit: You have no room for all of that assembled with COMPONENTS AVAILABLE TO YOU, that would possibly fit in a sneaker. And heat mapping, with the sensors that you have available will not work. The resources available to a team of product design engineers are quite a bit different. Having done some product design work myself, and consulted for a product design team, I am aware of that.
The fact is that resources make a great difference in ultimate capabilities.

 

The products mentioned certainly use custom designed microcircuits. And a lot of engineering went into those designs.
So let me expand on my comment a bit: You have no room for all of that assembled with COMPONENTS AVAILABLE TO YOU, that would possibly fit in a sneaker. And heat mapping, with the sensors that you have available will not work. The resources available to a team of product design engineers are quite a bit different. Having done some product design work myself, and consulted for a product design team, I am aware of that.
The fact is that resources make a great difference in ultimate capabilities.

This is a bizarre response. You might express skepticism and that would be reasonable—but you don’t have anywhere near enough information about the project, nor, I am guessing, about the SoTA of sensors, to make this proclamation.

To paraphrase whoever said it, sometimes you should stop bothering the person who is actually doing something “impossible“ so they can get on with it.

 

Hello all, I'm an industrial design student in Columbus, Ohio. I'm working on my senior capstone project which is about injury prevention for runners. One of my concepts that I'm looking into is a sneaker with a smart insole that tracks weight distribution with heatmapping and then sends the information in real time to the user's smartwatch for instant feedback and suggestions with AI. So I need pressure sensors and motion tracking sensors. Could someone please help me understand the process more in more simple terms, I don't really have much understand on programming or what all the tech does. I would also like to develop a working prototype if possible. What would that require? I have 10 weeks before presentations. Thank you

Welcome to AAC.

You have set a hard problem for yourself. Designing such a product is going to be a complex task, and might be beyond what you can accomplish with your level of knowledge in the time allotted.

Here are some of the difficulties you will need to face to succeed:

1. Power
   While using very low power technologies like BLE and low powered MCUs (Microcontrollers) you can reduce the power requirements you can’t eliminate the need—so this means you will need a battery. It is possible that you could use a primary (non-rechargeable) Lithium coin cell (e.g.: CR2032), embedding it in a shoe will be something that requires careful attention to safety requirements.
   
   You will need to develop an energy budget to ensure that your power source can practically serve the device.
   
   
2. Sensors
   The sensors you will need must be very low power and high resolution. The area you want to map is very small and this makes things harder. It is possible you could use interpolation to resolve data to a higher level that a single sensor could do, but I suspect that focusing on a domain specific arrangement (e.g.: detecting pronation/supination, heel strikes and ball of foot strikes, &c.) would be more productive than a simple distributed sensor array.
   
   The data from the few, strategically placed sensors could then be used to detect known issues with running with some accuracy and the global picture might be able to be used to interpolate the distribution in a reasonably detailed heat map.
   
   Just don’t confuse implementation details with design. That is, don’t assume that you know what and where to make measurements to get the data you will need. Instead, work out what data you will need and then figure out where to place sensors—the optimal arrangement might surprise you. Don’t let the solution become the problem.
   
   
3. App
   The idea of using an existing smart watch, like an Apple Watch, certainly makes the most sense for a finished product—but developing an app for one is not trivial and will require you to become an Apple Developer ($100/yr). For a project like yours it probably makes much more sense to use one of the several watch platforms that use standard MCUs. The LilyGo Watch comes to mind—it is open source and can be used in the Arduino development environment.
   
   
4. Alogrithms
   While this is not a very difficult area for someone immersed in it, it could be if you are not adept at the math involved, and it will be exacerbated by needing to learn how to program at the same time. If your institution allows it, I would strongly recommend partnering with an ECE (or your institution‘s equivalent) where their capstone can be the app development while yours is the design—or something similar.

Overall, this may be too ambitious—it is certainly not trivial or guaranteed success in the time usually allotted for a capstone. But, if you choose to pursue it you will have to learn a lot new things in a short time. You will have to decide if you think it is practical. Good luck with whatever you choose!

 

Welcome to AAC.

You have set a hard problem for yourself. Designing such a product is going to be a complex task, and might be beyond what you can accomplish with your level of knowledge in the time allotted.

Here are some of the difficulties you will need to face to succeed:

1. Power
   While using very low power technologies like BLE and low powered MCUs (Microcontrollers) you can reduce the power requirements you can’t eliminate the need—so this means you will need a battery. It is possible that you could use a primary (non-rechargeable) Lithium coin cell (e.g.: CR2032), embedding it in a shoe will be something that requires careful attention to safety requirements.
   
   You will need to develop an energy budget to ensure that your power source can practically serve the device.
   
   
2. Sensors
   The sensors you will need must be very low power and high resolution. The area you want to map is very small and this makes things harder. It is possible you could use interpolation to resolve data to a higher level that a single sensor could do, but I suspect that focusing on a domain specific arrangement (e.g.: detecting pronation/supination, heel strikes and ball of foot strikes, &c.) would be more productive than a simple distributed sensor array.
   
   The data from the few, strategically placed sensors could then be used to detect known issues with running with some accuracy and the global picture might be able to be used to interpolate the distribution in a reasonably detailed heat map.
   
   Just don’t confuse implementation details with design. That is, don’t assume that you know what and where to make measurements to get the data you will need. Instead, work out what data you will need and then figure out where to place sensors—the optimal arrangement might surprise you. Don’t let the solution become the problem.
   
   
3. App
   The idea of using an existing smart watch, like an Apple Watch, certainly makes the most sense for a finished product—but developing an app for one is not trivial and will require you to become an Apple Developer ($100/yr). For a project like yours it probably makes much more sense to use one of the several watch platforms that use standard MCUs. The LilyGo Watch comes to mind—it is open source and can be used in the Arduino development environment.
   
   
4. Alogrithms
   While this is not a very difficult area for someone immersed in it, it could be if you are not adept at the math involved, and it will be exacerbated by needing to learn how to program at the same time. If your institution allows it, I would strongly recommend partnering with an ECE (or your institution‘s equivalent) where their capstone can be the app development while yours is the design—or something similar.

Overall, this may be too ambitious—it is certainly not trivial or guaranteed success in the time usually allotted for a capstone. But, if you choose to pursue it you will have to learn a lot new things in a short time. You will have to decide if you think it is practical. Good luck with whatever you choose!

Hi I and Y,
You could also consider generating enough power to power the electronics, by walking.
C

 

Hi I and Y,
You could also consider generating enough power to power the electronics, by walking.
C

Probably not. Various attempts to do that were mostly failures. Given that a Lithium coin cell can power a BLE-based device like an Apple AirTag for months, it doesn’t seem worth the effort.

 

Here is a completely non-electronic issue.

Putting a battery and sensors is inside insole in such a way that it is not annoyingly felt by the foot may prove more difficult than any of the other issues. The foot is very sensitive to such things. A runner is not going to wear shoes that are uncomfortable. That might be acceptable for research studies, but not as a consumer product.