Other

Ruth Shrairman

Alexander Landau

An article of footwear and insert for an article of footwear are provided with means for provisional instantaneous enhancing cutaneous mechanoreceptors pressure sensation from the plantar surface (sole) of the foot perimeter zone. Such instantaneous stimulation ought to compensate age/illness&#x2014;related deterioration of plantar cutaneous sensation; it enhances its ability to detect and react to the shifts of the body's Center of Gravity (COG) toward the edges of the feet which, if left uncorrected right away, cause ankle sprain, and/or loss of balance and fall. An insole disclosed is provided with a set of pressure-activated protrusions, which form a narrow strip in close proximity to the perimeter of the insole inside the inner neighborhood of the plantar sole perimeter, and becomes active just when the Center Of Pressure (COP) of the wearer of the footwear is shifting dangerously toward the edges of the feet.

Autonomous balance-enhanced insert for footwear

A biometric machine method for instantaneous assessment of the fine motor control of a human individual through analysis of that individual's handwriting dynamics in which the dynamic data concerning forces, accelerations, and the like, of a scriber, is collected during the process of cursive writing. The criteria of stability, smoothness and synchronization of the writer's motion are returned by the system as quantifying measures of the neurological function. The method processes behavioral random signals with application of the correlation function analysis to the handwriting dynamic signals. In one embodiment, the system includes an instrumented pen connected to a computer, power supply, and analog-to-digital converter, and with the handwriting samples provided on any writing surface. In a second embodiment, the system comprises an instrumental digital tablet having an active area and non-instrumented scriber with the handwriting samples provided on the active area of the grid. The method is simple and not invasive. The analysis takes less than a minute to return the numerical criteria scores and graphical displays showing stability of the handwriting strokes and the characteristics of the phase distortions in reproducing cursive samples. The invention can be applied for monitoring patients with neurological disorders, monitoring people with alcohol/drug abuse problems, detection of fine motor control deterioration as a result of exposure to toxic materials, and testing the efficacy of countermeasures to improve impaired fine motor control functions.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Ruth Shrairman