Study on a high performance insole with human compatibility

Abstract

It is reported that the rate of elderly person in the total population of Japan is about 21.5% in 2007. Thus, the recent society of Japan is called as "Elderly Society". In the society, many elderly people work or enjoy walking to keep health. However, some problems with respect to stumble over of elderly people are occurred. That is to say, in recent years, accidents of bone fracture with elderly people increase because of tendency to fall by a little step in a house. As one of this cause, it is considered that a center of gravity position with foot parts is changed. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, we propose a new type of high performance insole by making use of spongecore- soft rubber actuator (SCSRA). In this study, we indicate the structure of the insole. Further, the basic characteristics of the insole are clarified through some experimental results. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.