WiShoe – A novel shoe-based system for real time monitoring of Energy and Gait parameters for Sport and Medical Applications

The Wi-Shoe project developed a completely non-intrusive wearable shoe-based system used for measuring kinematic gait parameters and energetic expenditure during various activities. The Wi-Shoe system integrates miniature sensors in a custom designed shoe sole. Different types of shoes can be made based on novel shoe sole designs. During the project, two different shoes were developed; a casual, everyday shoe and a sports shoe. Wi-Shoe answers the actual need of the healthcare, rehabilitation and sport sectors for a person-centric product that will allow continuous monitoring of the subject without the need for an expert’s intervention, promoting the role of “home as care environment”. Data from the Wi-Shoe are wirelessly sent to a nearby smartphone for evaluation of the subject’s condition and gait performance, as well as for real-time warnings generation. Data can also be forwarded to a Professional, cloud-based version of the Wi-Shoe software for full data analysis. The system offers also historical analysis of results.