A Miniaturized Shoe-Integrated Wearable Sensory System for Continuous Passive Body Weight Monitoring

Abstract

In this letter, we report on the very first shoe-integrated sensory system for continuous body weight monitoring that is free of motion sensors and that can operate uninterrupted on a coin cell battery for 20 days. In contrast with shoe-integrated sensory systems that focus on gait analysis, fall detection, or diabetes foot, the proposed system is designed to enable continuous body weight monitoring "in the wild." Its implementation features a custom highly miniaturized PCB that can be inserted into the back of the shoe, a unique undershoe interconnect fabric for signal routing and processing, and a smartphone app for body weight monitoring and recording. This novel wearable sensory system represents a major advance over our prior prototype, achieving a volume reduction of more than 98%, a weight reduction of more than 97%, and the replacement of a bulky 10 000 mAh battery pack with a 750 mAh coin cell battery. The novel wearable sensory system addresses the major clinical problem of patient compliance with monitoring and treatment protocols that require frequent measurements of body weight, as is the case with congestive heart failure, diabetes, and several forms of cancer.