Abstract
This paper presents the new method that calculate the plantar pressure distribution based on the brightness distribution of the continuous plantar image captured by the camera located under a transparent acrylic resin plate. To evaluate the proposed method, the comparison experiments are conducted with the hemisphere model that simulated a human heel. The measurement result by the proposed method and the pressure sensor while the model pushed down with the same vertical force are compared. The experimental results show that pressure distribution calculated by the proposed method are qualitatively similar to pressure distribution by the existing sensor. The intensity of brightness of the contacting area changes according to the pushed vertical force. The resolution of the camera that we use are three orders of magnitude higher than the existing sensor. The experimental results suggested the possibility of estimation of the high spatial resolution of the dynamic plantar pressure distribution.
