Diabetic neuropathy strikes a large percentage of the population living with diabetes. The main symptoms being loss of feeling and the development of ulcers on the feet, it’s often diagnosed and treated much later than the ideal. To help prevent the development of ulcers, a student team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s BioDesign course have created sensor-laden socks that can detect unusual forces applied to the feet, thus detecting a loss of feeling and helping the patient adjust the posture, try different shoes, or take other actions.
The socks have dozens of pressure sensors built in throughout the fabric. The data from these is gathered to create a pressure map of the feet, with the red regions showing high levels of force being applied to the feet. Because the socks have Bluetooth wireless capability, the data can be displayed on a paired smartphone where warnings to adjust one’s feet also appear.
Here’s a video from Hebrew University of Jerusalem with members of the team talking about the new technology:
