Smart Shoe

SMART SHOE

INTRODUCTION
With the development of technology people have become more cautious about their health. But due to their busy schedules and hectic lifestyles they have no time to think about their health anymore. Therefore there are plenty of methods invented to monitor whether we are living a healthy lifestyle. For example Apple has created the “Health” application and Samsung has created the “S-Health” application. All these applications are connected to a smart phone or a smart watch. This is where the “Smart Shoe” is highlighted where it is a standalone application without any connection to a smart phone or any other device.

For each person there is a number of calories he/she should burn daily due to the consumption of food in order to live a healthy lifestyle. The smart shoe will indicate the level of calories burnt while jogging or walking via a series of LED lights lit along the shoe. This will help the user to identify whether he/she has burnt the required number of calories. The number of calories burnt will be calculated by counting the number of steps and also from time interval between two consecutive steps.

LITERATURE REVIEW

This Standalone shoe concept is a new idea .Similar products are NIKE+ SPORTBAND, Garmin Foot Pod, and Life Source Activity Monitor. All these Smart Health assistance applications need smart phone or computer to calculate calories burnt. Relevant kinds of studies or techniques need to be mastered are Statistical researches done for calculating human height according to step length.

DESIGN

There is a weight sensor inside the shoe that will automatically recognize the weight of the person which is connected to micro controller. Then the program will automatically calculate his/her height using some advanced mathematical calculations and related researches. Basically the height calculating algorithm uses relationship between a person's walking pace and their height to estimate your own height 1. Also the program will automatically calculate step length from Acceleration of foot which is recorded by built-in 3-dimensional Accelerometer 2. With this data it will calculate the BMI (Body Mass Index). This will help to calculate the number of calories he/she should burn daily. All the data processing would be done by an Arduino nano which would be located inside the shoe. Also there will be a rechargeable Li-ion battery located inside the shoe.
The number of steps will be calculated from built-in 3-dimentional Accelerometer which is located under the shoe which would be much accurate than the other sensors. This data would be then sent to the micro controller to calculate the number of calories burnt. While the calories are burning a sequence of LED lights would light. Once the total number of required calories are burnt all the lights would be lit.

IMPLEMENTATION AND CHALLENGES

Calculating human height from few sensors located inside a shoe will be a big challenge but it is possible as there are lot of research papers available. And also calculating step length from an Accelerometer will require some hard mathematical work. Building a weight sensor will also be a challenge. Also the design of the shoe requires a series of LED lights. The consumer preference would be challenged that will they be willing to wear a pair of shoes with LED lights lit. Design should be accordingly to the market trend in the fashion industry.

Required Components

Arduino Nano 3.0 Microcontroller -1 USD 1.25

ADXL345 Triple axis accelerometer -1 USD 4.50

LED - 8 USD 1.00

Electronics Components for power circuit and weight sensor -1 USD 5.00

URL to Project Demonstration Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL5WBqGE-HU


REFERENCES
1) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-estimating-height-walk

2) http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/Courses/Computer-Networks-Lab/projects/spring2008/Pedometer2/comparison_of_step_lengt_estimators.pdf

3) http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/12/7/8507/pdf

4) http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn