Progressive Orthotic Inserts with Incremental Curvature and Firmness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional footwear soles and orthotics often fail to provide gradual and safe corrections to foot structures, leading to discomfort and potential injury due to sudden changes, as they do not adapt incrementally to the wearer's biomechanics.
Innovation Solution
A progressive sequence of footwear soles or orthotics with incrementally different inserts, each changing in shape, thickness, or firmness, worn sequentially to gradually correct foot position and biomechanics, mimicking the incremental improvements seen in dental orthodontic appliances like Invisalign.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional footwear soles and orthotics apply sudden or major corrections to foot structures, then the corrective effect is achieved quickly, but the wearer experiences discomfort and potential injury due to the foot's inability to adapt
Solution Approach 1:
The corrective process is divided into multiple sequential stages, with each orthotic insert providing a specific level of correction. The system segments the total correction needed into incremental steps, allowing the foot to adapt progressively rather than all at once.
Solution Approach 2:
The foot is prepared for full correction through preliminary incremental adjustments. Each stage of the progressive sequence serves as a preliminary action that gradually conditions the foot's bones, muscles, and ligaments to tolerate increasing levels of correction before reaching the final corrected state.
2Reliability
If a single orthotic insert provides major correction, then the corrective structure is effective, but the foot cannot safely adapt to the change
Solution Approach 1:
The orthotic system transitions from static single-level correction to dynamic progressive correction. The corrective force applied to the foot changes over time through the sequence of inserts, allowing the system to adapt to the foot's changing tolerance and adaptation status throughout the correction process.
Solution Approach 2:
The corrective parameters (shape, thickness, firmness) of the orthotic inserts are systematically changed across the progressive sequence. Each insert in the sequence has modified parameters compared to the previous one, enabling gradual adjustment of the corrective force to match the foot's adaptation progress.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If footwear soles use incremental corrections in a progressive sequence, then the foot can safely adapt to changes, but the correction process takes longer
Solution Approach 1:
The corrective action continues uninterrupted through the progressive sequence of inserts. Rather than pausing or reversing, the correction process maintains continuous forward progression through multiple stages, with each insert building upon the previous one to achieve the final corrected state efficiently.
Data Source
AI summary
Orthotics or other footwear inserts including a set of separate and incrementally different inserts sized and adapted for a right and/or left foot. One such insert in said set has a first corrective structure and at least another such insert has a second corrective structure. The second corrective structure including at least an incremental change in one or more of curvature, thickness and firmness of at least one sidemost portion of said insert in said set as compared to the first corrective structure and a corrective structure of each other said insert in said set. The inserts in the set have a progressive sequence based on the increase or decrease in one of the curvature, thickness and firmness, are adapted to be worn one at a time for a period of time sequentially based on the progressive sequence and also include at least one internal sipe.