Vibrating insoles for remote neurological monitoring and balance enhancement (Phase I)

在老年人和糖尿病周围神经病变患者中，脚底皮肤敏感性降低与跌倒风险增加有关。鉴于此，通过振动“智能鞋垫”技术进行远程皮肤敏感性测试的能力将代表着患者监测和潜在医疗成本节约方面的重大进步。振动鞋垫将提供一个更有效和精确的替代人工测试方法在诊所使用的今天。用户可以每周甚至每天进行远程测试，为临床医生提供前所未有的神经学数据频率，同时使患者成为自己医疗保健的代理人。除了神经监测之外，振动鞋垫还可以与其他现有的可穿戴传感器结合使用，在闭环控制系统中测量平衡性能（例如，压力感应鞋垫或头戴式加速度计），为用户提供实时的感官反馈增强。例如，如果足底压力分布转移到脚跟上，脚跟下的振动器就会被激活，从而增加对足底压力的感知，并产生反射性的姿势反应，使身体向前移动。然而，由于设计缺陷，现有的振动鞋垫不能有效地刺激脚底，当使用者全身站立时产生可感知的振动。为了解决这个问题，我建议开发振动的鞋垫隔间，它可以承受身体的重量，并为马达提供一个口袋，以继续移动和发出振动。此外，我的设计将每个振动电机与附近的加速度计耦合，用于实时反馈和校准刺激幅度和频率。这项从创意到创新的资助将支持这些振动鞋垫技术的进一步开发和转化，以充分实现其商业潜力。

Reduced foot sole skin sensitivity is associated with an increased risk of falling in older adults and diabetic peripheral neuropathy patients. Given this, the ability to perform remote skin sensitivity tests through vibrating 'smart insole' technologies would represent a major advance in patient monitoring and potential healthcare cost savings. Vibrating insoles will provide a more efficient and precise alternative to manual testing methods used in the clinic today. Users could perform remote testing on a weekly or even daily basis, providing an unprecedented frequency of neurological data for clinicians, while empowering patients to become agents of their own healthcare. Beyond neurological monitoring, vibrating insoles can be combined with other existing wearable sensors that measure balance performance (e.g., pressure-sensing insoles or head-mounted accelerometers) within a closed-loop control system to provide real-time sensory feedback enhancement for the user. For example, if the plantar pressure distribution shifts onto the heels, vibrators under the heels become activated, leading to increased perceptual awareness of plantar pressure and a reflexive postural response that brings the body forward. Due to a design flaw, however, the only existing vibrating insoles are not effective at stimulating the foot sole with perceptible vibrations when users stand on them with full body weight. To circumvent this, I propose to develop vibrating insole compartments which can bear the weight of the body and provide a pocket for the motors to continue moving and emitting vibrations. Furthermore, my design couples each vibrating motor with a nearby accelerometer for real-time feedback and calibration of stimulation amplitudes and frequencies. This Idea-to-Innovation grant will support the further development and translation of these vibrating insole technologies to fully realize their commercial potential.