Method for Design and Manufacture of Insoles

Abstract

A method for the design and production of improved pressure reducing therapeutic shoe insoles for a person. The method includes the steps of measuring a three dimensional image of a foot and the distribution of plantar pressures applied by a person's foot being measured for a pressure reducing insole. Selecting a shoe insole outline or template which best fits or corresponds to the shape of a foot being measured. A foot display is generated which combines and aligns the three dimensional foot shape and the plantar pressure distribution. A three dimensional insole display is generated which combines and aligns the foot shape and plantar pressure distribution, and includes modifications based upon selected pressure contour lines identified within the foot display which are above predetermined pressure thresholds.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application claims priority from U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 611,775 filed Sep. 21, 2004, the entire subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.GOVERNMENT INTEREST [0002] This invention was supported under National Institutes of Health grant no. R44 DK 59074-02 awarded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The U.S. government has certain rights in the invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Field of Invention [0004] The present invention relates to insoles for footwear and more specifically to a method for computer aided design and manufacture of custom pressure reducing insoles for footwear. [0005] 2. Background of the Related Art [0006] It is generally known that high plantar pressures under the foot can lead directly to undesirable injury and symptoms in the foot. Such injury or symptoms may include pain in a foot with sensation, or tissue damage and ulce...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] The present invention provides an improved method and system for designing and manufacturing an improved pressure reducing insole for footwear of a person.

Problems solved by technology

It is generally known that high plantar pressures under the foot can lead directly to undesirable injury and symptoms in the foot.

Due to its subjective nature, this process has been shown to yield inconsistent results with respect to obtaining the desired pressure reduction and, because the process is labor intensive, it is expensive.

However, such systems have failed to provide the necessary combination of measurements to accurately align the high pressure locations or other locations of interest on the subject's foot with the insole to be designed and manufactured, in order to obtain precise and reproducible insoles from the measurements obtained.

They have also not provided an approach to determining pressure regions and deciding the regions of interest based on a method of “thresholding” these regions based upon measured plantar pressure data.

Such patented systems also suggest that footwear should reduce pressure distributions toward some ideal value but research has shown that the considerable variability in human feet makes such a concept untenable.

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