Measuring and testing – Dynamometers – Responsive to multiple loads or load components
Patent
1997-10-09
1999-08-31
Dombroske, George
Measuring and testing
Dynamometers
Responsive to multiple loads or load components
356376, G01D 700
Patent
active
059456108
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED TO U.S. APPLICATION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting and displaying pressures of the foot-sole at a standstill and during movement. In particular, this apparatus is designed for the study, at any one moment, of the different postures assumed in the erect position or during a sporting movement, when resting on both feet or on one foot.
2. Background Art
French Patent Nos. 2,273,257 and 2,330,996 disclose a footboard comprising an array of foot-sole sensors located underneath a layer of flexible and electrically conductive material and making contact therewith. Each sensor has a first terminal, kept at a constant predetermined d.c. voltage, and a second terminal, receiving the current which passes through the conductive layer and is modified following the variation in electrical resistance depending on the state of deformation thereof, acting as detector of the foot-sole pressure. The response of the detectors is switched to a single read device via a pyramid of analog multiplexers. The management of these multiplexers is controlled by a set of decoder counters which are governed by a control processor.
The drawbacks of the above embodiments relate not to the operating principle, but more to the dimensional limits of the footboard for measuring the foot-sole pressures. These limits are due to the size of the printed circuits necessary for the array of sensors, said printed circuits not being able to undergo excessive miniaturization. Therefore, a single footboard with the dimensions of a square having a side 32 cm long--dimensions which are currently possible--represents a considerable limitation when performing the tests for measuring the foot-sole pressure, especially during postural graphic measurements and dynamic analyses. In fact, it allows one to perform dynamic measurements which are undoubtedly of limited use from a physiological point of view since they in fact represent a patient who is moving on a same square footboard without performing any consecutive forward steps. Static measurements on a single square foot-board are also unsatisfactory, because the footboard proves to be uncomfortable for patients with pathological conditions, since stiffening of the muscles may occur, thereby falsifying the results of the tests.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is therefore that of eliminating the drawbacks mentioned above. The invention, as characterized by the claims which follow, solves the problem of providing an apparatus for detecting and displaying pressures of the foot-sole at a standstill and during movement, which uses in a footboard an array of foot-sole sensors located underneath a layer of flexible and electrically conductive material and making contact therewith, each sensor having a first terminal, kept at a constant predetermined d.c. voltage, and a second terminal, receiving the current which passes through the conductive layer and is modified following variation in the electrical resistance depending on the state of deformation thereof, acting as a detector of the foot-sole pressure, which from a general point of view is characterized in that it comprises an elongated modular platform consisting of a multiplicity of said footboards placed in a cascade arrangement and connected to one another in a direction unidirectionally; each footboard comprising its own array of foot-sole sensors operating at the same voltage and the arrays of foot-sole sensors of all the footboards operating at the same voltage; a control processor connected to said elongated modular platform by means of an interface board; said interface board including: a digital-analog converter module connected at its input to the control processor and at its output to each footboard, a timing and enable module connected at its input to the control processor and at its output to each footboard, a concentrator/switching module, having a number of inputs equivalent to the number of footboards and having an output connected to an
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Dombroske George
Thompson Jewel
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