Toward an augmented shoe for preventing falls related to physical conditions of the soil

Abstract

It is known that the physical conditions of an environment might represent an important risk of falling. In this paper, we report an ongoing project toward the creation of intelligent clothes aiming at preventing falls related to such conditions. The package described here is centered on an intelligent shoe. The developed prototype counts two main parts: hardware and software. The material is composed of a set of sensors and actuators, distributed in strategic positions of the shoe, while the software is a soft real-time system running on a Smartphone. Our prototype has been served for the differentiation of physical properties of soils (concrete, broken stone, sand and dust stone).