Recent Innovations in Footwear and the Role of Smart Footwear in Healthcare—A Survey

Abstract

Smart shoes have ushered in a new era of personalised health monitoring and assistive technologies. Smart shoes leverage technologies such as Bluetooth for data collection and wireless transmission, and incorporate features such as GPS tracking, obstacle detection, and fitness tracking. As the 2010s unfolded, the smart shoe landscape diversified and advanced rapidly, driven by sensor technology enhancements and smartphones’ ubiquity. Shoes have begun incorporating accelerometers, gyroscopes, and pressure sensors, significantly improving the accuracy of data collection and enabling functionalities such as gait analysis. The healthcare sector has recognised the potential of smart shoes, leading to innovations such as shoes designed to monitor diabetic foot ulcers, track rehabilitation progress, and detect falls among older people, thus expanding their application beyond fitness into medical monitoring. This article provides an overview of the current state of smart shoe technology, highlighting the integration of advanced sensors for health monitoring, energy harvesting, assistive features for the visually impaired, and deep learning for data analysis. This study discusses the potential of smart footwear in medical applications, particularly for patients with diabetes, and the ongoing research in this field. Current footwear challenges are also discussed, including complex construction, poor fit, comfort, and high cost.