Smartscan: A smart glove to create and mold virtual models

The Smartscan project aims to change orthopedic footwear from an art to a science. We are making a smart glove with pressure and positions sensing grids that can be used to create and manipulate 3D models of the foot and lower leg.  

At present, orthopedic footwear is designed on the basis of the experience and feel of the clinician who diagnoses the patient. However, approximately 20% of all orthopedic footwear fails to meet the patient’s needs. It is believed that this is because the clinician is operating in a data-poor environment. Our aim is to bring evidence-based medicine to the orthopedic clinic.

Currently, diagnosis is carried out by the clinician feeling and manipulating the patient’s foot and/or leg. The clinician uses this to estimate where the tissue is hard or soft and what shape of footwear is required to correct the patient’s foot. This feel is combined with a plaster cast of the foot, to which the clinician must then apply their adjustments.

The Smartscan project aims to record, as exactly as possible, the manipulation during diagnosis. The position of the hands and the fingers must be tracked, the motion of the foot and leg during manipulation must be recorded, and, when the foot is pressed into the corrected shape, that too must be recorded. If successful, the clinician will no longer need to make a plaster cast of the foot, and different corrections can be applied in a virtual model, allowing clinicians to use their experience and data to find the best correction.

This project is a collaboration between Fontys Paramedical School, Distributed Sensor Systems, ICT, as well as private companies and other institutes.