AI Smart Insoles Bring Lab-Grade Force Tracking to Sports, Rehab, and Diabetic Foot Care

AI-powered smart insoles are changing how we track movement, train athletes, and support injury recovery. These insoles predict ground reaction forces (GRFs) with an impressive 4.1% error margin, offering a portable and affordable alternative to traditional lab equipment.

Measuring Ground Forces Outside the Lab

Ground reaction forces reveal how muscles and joints respond during movement, crucial information for sports science, rehabilitation, and injury prevention. Until now, capturing this data required bulky, expensive devices like force plates or instrumented treadmills, limiting use to specialized labs.

The new smart insoles solve this by bringing accurate GRF measurement into everyday environments—gyms, parks, or homes. Developed through a collaboration between a university and a tech company, these insoles combine affordability with mobility, making advanced movement tracking accessible anywhere.

How the Smart Insoles Work

Each insole contains two key sensors: a pressure sensor system called CapSense, which monitors pressure changes underfoot, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) that captures foot acceleration and rotation. The data streams feed into an AI model that dynamically weighs the most relevant input during movement, improving accuracy.

This dual-stream attention model achieves a prediction error of just 4.1%, a significant improvement over previous devices, which had error rates ranging from 8% to 20%. This precision supports practical applications across various fields.

Applications in Sports and Rehabilitation

• Sports and Injury Prevention: Athletes can analyze their movements closely to refine technique and reduce injury risk.
• Rehabilitation: Physical therapists and doctors gain detailed insights into patient movement, enabling personalized treatment adjustments.
• Health Research: Researchers collect reliable real-world data on walking, running, and recovery patterns.

Everyday Wear with Real-Time Insights

Unlike lab equipment, these insoles are lightweight, battery-powered, and provide up to eight hours of use. They connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to computers or mobile devices, storing movement and pressure data with timestamps for easy tracking over time.

Dr. Tim Exell, a biomechanics expert involved in the project, highlights that measuring forces outside the lab opens new opportunities to improve athletic performance and rehabilitation outcomes.

Beyond Sports: Addressing Diabetic Foot Care

One of the driving motivations behind these insoles is helping people with diabetes. Peripheral neuropathy dulls foot sensation, increasing the risk of unnoticed pressure points that can lead to ulcers and serious complications.

The pressure sensors in the smart insoles can alert users to dangerous high-pressure zones early, enabling timely intervention that could prevent infections or amputations. This feature has the potential to improve quality of life for millions worldwide.

Dr. Liucheng Guo, CTO of TG0, the tech company behind the device, emphasizes their mission to create accessible, sustainable, and intelligent human-machine interfaces through AI and affordable materials.

Collaborative Innovation for Practical Solutions

The development of these smart insoles was part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) bringing together university researchers and industry engineers. Rigorous testing against lab-standard equipment confirmed the system’s accuracy and reliability.

Combining simple materials, smart sensors, and advanced AI algorithms has made high-quality movement tracking more accessible than ever before. Whether for athletes, patients, or health researchers, these insoles offer a valuable tool to support better outcomes.

For those interested in AI applications within healthcare and wearable tech, exploring practical AI training can provide insights into how these advances come to life. Resources like Complete AI Training’s latest courses offer relevant knowledge for professionals aiming to integrate AI into product development and healthcare solutions.