Determination of weight distribution in the foot

Abstract

Recent advance in the development of methods for the measurement of static weight distribution on the foot are reviewed and find that there is no low cost equipment in the present scenario to determine these parameters, developing an economical method will help the doctors to diagnose the weight distribution in the foot and the abnormality based on type of the foot. The major technical challenge is to design the individual weight measuring point without using load cell or pressure sensor, since it increases cost of the equipment. This system involves optical based weight measurement. As an additional feature, it measures the severity of loss of sensation in the foot through a Vibro-tactile threshold sensation technique. This technique help assess the degree of loss of sensation in the foot for a diabetes patient. our project involves two foot plates in which one is designed with seven LED-LDR setup and the other a dummy. Depending on the weight of the person, the intensity of light falling on the LDR from the LED varies. The detected signal is fed to the microcontroller for processing and the output is displayed in a PC monitor.