• PNF and Movement
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.273-280
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• 2023

Objective: In patients with temporomandibular joint disorders, air insoles are used to investigate functionality and pain changes in the temporomandibular joint when walking in daily life. Intervention: Sixty-five patients with temporomandibular joint disorder were recruited: 34 as a control group who walked more than 7,000 steps a day in daily life, and 31 as an experimental group who were instructed to take at least 7,000 steps every day while wearing their air insoles. Measurements: To determine the effects of air insoles on temporomandibular joint pain, steady-state pain, maximum mouth opening, average pain, and the most severe pain were measured before and after the experiment. In addition, to evaluate functionality, the ability to open the mouth in a comfortable state, pain when opening the mouth, and the point of sound and maximum degree to which the mouth could be opened were evaluated before and after the experiment. Results: Pain, mouth openness, and sound points showed significant differences from the control group after the experiment, and the maximum mouth opening range showed no significant difference. Conclusion: When air insoles were used by patients with temporomandibular joint disorder, the functionality of the temporomandibular joint was improved and pain was decreased.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2012

The ankle over-pronation causes the mechanical overloading transferred to proximal areas (i.e. knees or hips) over time. Thus, the over-pronation is recognized as a contributory factor in a wide variety of musculo-skeletal pathologies in lower extremities. Commonly, over-pronated ankles are treated using specially designed insoles that support medial heels and correct the posture of lower limbs. However, the biomechanical effects of the insoles are not yet fully understood, so there still are controversies whether such insoles really have clinical significance. In this study, in order to verify the effects of insoles and determine the best shape of the insoles, we examined how the medio-lateral knee joint reaction force changes due to insole conditions through a case study about a subject. As a result, it is revealed that the medial heel post, which drastically reduced the peak medio-lateral knee joint reaction force, has significant effects on the gait of the over-pronated patients. However, in case that the arch support is combined together, the positive effect of the medial heel post may rather decrease.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.71-79
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• 2008

Walking shoes for walking and jogging have been used to enjoy lots of leisure time. Functional shoes such as walking shoes have special functions to improve body motility by changing of shoe shapes. The walking shoes could improve the motility by structural transformation of outsole as increase degrees of heel and toe. The study on insoles has not been conducted enough on the contrary of the study of outsole. The purpose of this study is to perform ergonomics analysis whether the Arch Supported insoles have an improving effect of muscle activities or not. Experiments were performed with 6 subjects who are health and haven't experienced any diseases past. EMG(Electromyography) and Foot Pressures were measured repeatedly for 5 seconds at 0 hour, after 1 hour and after 2 hours of walking. Insoles used for experiment are normal insole, insole inserted Arch Support and pad. The electrodes for EMG measurement were set on waist (erector spinae), and thigh (vastus lateralis), calf (gastrocnemius). Evaluations of EMG were analyzed by shift of MF (Median Frequency) and MPF (Mean Power Frequency). Foot Pressure was analyzed by mean pressure of feet and change of walking time. As results, Arch Support insole had larger frequency shift value than that of normal insole. Frequency shift between Arch Support insoles and normal insole showed significant difference on 95% confidence interval. And insole 1 has the highest value of frequency shift. For results of foot pressure, Arch Support insoles show continuous decreasing tendency when comparing with normal insoles by changing of times. Also, insole 1 has the highest decreasing value of foot pressure. Therefore, this study presented that the Arch Support insole can promote muscle activities and improves comfort for a prolonged walking.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.184-192
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• 2015

Korea has already entered into an aging society. In recent decades, the health problems for seniors has received considerable interest. We often see the elderly who have been struggled from discomfort or illness of the foot. Those foot related problems mainly cause from the use of improper shoes. Recently, shoe makers sell the shoes for seniors, so called comfort shoes, but the shoes are too expensive for seniors to buy easily. In this paper, we develop cheap insoles for seniors as an alternative of the comfort shoes and suggest the systematic process for the insoles development. This systematic process is as follows: 1) Survey the literature about the market of insole, 2) Investigate the standard size of body and foot for the seniors in Korea, 3) Analyze the customer needs by survey, 4) Study the walking pattern by experiments, and 5) Develop the novel insole for the seniors to relieve the inconveniences related with foot. From the newly developed insoles, the company B gains the sales increasing effect approximately 30% over through the increase in consumer satisfaction and company reputation and secures for intellectual property rights. Using the database from Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, the reliability of developing technology of the functional insole has been obtained. The seniors are also enable to choose an alternative of comfort shoes for foot health. In the future, the insoles developed from this study have wide applications in the medical, cosmetic fields, and leisure sports fields. Accordingly, it seems to require more systematic studies utilizing Walk Analyzer and Foot Pressure Meter.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.130-135
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• 2022

Purpose: Smart insoles are wearable devices that are inserted into shoes. Smart insoles with built-in pressure and acceleration sensors can measure the plantar pressure, stride length, and walking speed. This study evaluated the validity and reliability of the plantar pressure measurements of smart insoles during walking on flat ground. Materials and Methods: Twenty one subjects were included in this study. After wearing smart insoles, I-SOL^® (Gilon, Seongnam, Korea), the subjects walked a 10 m corridor six times at a rate of 100 steps/min, and the middle three steps, free from direction changes, were chosen for data analysis. The same protocol was repeated after wearing Pedar-X (Novel Corporation, Munich, Germany), an insoletype plantar pressure measurement equipment with proven validity. The average maximum pressure (P_peak, kPa) and the time at which P_peak appeared (P_time, %stride) were calculated for each device. The validity of smart insoles was evaluated by using the interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of P_peak and P_time between the two instruments, and Cronbach's alpha was obtained from the P_peak values to evaluate the reliability. Results: The ICC of P_peak was 0.651 (good) in the hallux, 0.744 (good) in the medial forefoot, 0.839 (excellent) in the lateral forefoot, and 0.854 (excellent) in the hindfoot. The ICC of P_time showed 0.868 (excellent) in the hallux, 0.892 (excellent) in the medial forefoot, 0.721 (good) in the lateral forefoot, and 0.832 (excellent) in the hindfoot. All ICC values showed good or excellent results. The Cronbach's alpha of P_peak measured in the smart insoles was 0.990 in the hallux, 0.961 in the medial forefoot, 0.973 in the lateral forefoot, and 0.995 in the hindfoot; all indicated excellent reliability in all areas. Conclusion: The plantar pressure measurements of smart insoles during walking on a flat ground showed validity compared to Pedar-X, and high reliability after repeated measurements.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.23-30
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• 2005

The mailman's shoes should be designed in due consideration of occupational features they spend most of times to walk. For that reason, the shoes required functions to reduce the foot fatigue and to protect body by dispersing the body weight to the whole foot. In this research, for the functional improvement of the insole, insoles are investigated and analyzed by biomechanics experimentation. Under the base of these experimental results, we develop insoles that can reduce the body load and muscular-skeletal disorder. The pressures are concentrated on the metatarsus and heel by the result of analyzing pressure distributions of the using shoes. Accordingly, we offer the prototype functional insole that is ranked from high pressure to low pressure on the base of a shock absorb function. This prototype functional insole is examined for statistical significance by pressure distribution areas. The experimental results show that pressure areas are dispersed to whole foot, for this reason, pressures of the metatarsus and heel are reduced. Results of this research can not only improve the function of insoles which is suitable for occupational features, but also be a base on constructing data bases for biomechanics gait insoles.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.345-353
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to compare and biomechanical evaluate the effects of three varying functional insoles on the kinematics of the lower extremities and foot pressure distribution during gait. For this 12 subjects participated in this study and each worn the 3 functional insoles during gait which kinematics, kinetics, electromyography and foot pressures were recorded. The function on the first insole was to absorb shock and increase the dynamic stability, the second was a gel type to absorb shock, and the third was to massage the center regions of the foot sole. the results were as follows; the first insole reduced the joints range of motion and reduced muscular fatigue, the second insole reduce the maximum, total and average foot pressures. Finally, the third insole produced larger values for the contact times and contact area.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2007

In many manufacturing occupations, industrial workers reported foot or lower leg problems such as discomfort, pain or orthopedic deformities. This study investigated the effects of two different working conditions upon assembly worker's perception of discomfort and foot pain associated with various body parts. Twenty-three male volunteers performed work in the factory. Ergonomic intervention has been to modify the flooring in an attempt to alleviate the problems associated with constrained standing and walking work. The worker's standing conditions consisted of standing on a hard floor while wearing shoe insoles. Questions were asked regarding body discomfort and foot pain. Significant differences in body discomfort and foot pain were found when comparing the overall effects of wearing shoe insoles on a hard floor (p<.05). This investigation indicated that shoe insoles reduced body discomfort and foot pain (p<.05).

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.270-284
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• 2017

This study aimed to create 3D-printed insoles for flat-footed senior men using 3D systems. 3D systems are product-manufacturing systems that use 3-dimensional technologies like 3D scanning, 3D modeling, and 3D printing. This study used a 3D scanner (NexScan2), 3D CAD programs including Rapidform, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Nauta+ compiling program, and a 3D printer. In order to create insoles for flat-footed senior men, we analyzed horizontal sections of 3D foot scans We selected 20 flat-footed and 20 normal-footed subjects. To make the 3D insole models, we sliced nine lines on the surface of the subjects' 3D foot scans, and plotted 144 points on the lines. We calculated the average of these 3D coordinates, then located this average within the 3D space of the AutoCAD program and created 3D sole models using the loft surface tools of the SolidWorks program. The sole models for flat feet differed from those of normal feet in the depth of the arch at the inner sideline and the big toe line. We placed the normal-footed sole model on a flat-footed sole model, and the combination of the two models resulted in the 3D insole for flat feet. We printed the 3D modeled insole using a 3D printer. The 3D printing material was an acrylic resin similar to rubber. This made the insole model flexible and wearable. This study utilized 3D systems to create 3D insoles for flat-footed seniors and this process can be applied to manufacture other items in the fashion industry as well.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.115-126
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• 2016

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate plantar foot pressure and static balance according to the type of insole in the elderly. Methods: Thirteen elderly (mean age: $67.08{\pm}2.25years$, mean height: $159.63{\pm}9.64cm$, mean body weight: $61.48{\pm}9.06kg$) who had no previous injury experience in the lower limbs and a normal gait pattern participated in this study. Three models of insoles of the normal, 3D, and triangle types were selected for the test. The Pedar-X system and Pedar-X insoles, 3.3 km/h of walking speed, and a compilation of 20 steps walking stages were used to analyze foot-pressure distribution. Static balance test was conducted using Gaitview AFA-50, and balance (opening eyes, closing eyes) was inspected for 20 s. One-way ANOVA was conducted to test the significance of the results with the three insoles. p-value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean foot pressure under the forefoot regions was the lowest with the 3D insole during treadmill walking (p<.05). The mean value under the midfoot was the highest with the 3D insole (left: p<.05, right: p<.01). The mean value under the rearfoot was the lowest with the 3D insole (p<.001). The maximum foot pressure value under the foot regions was the lowest on both sides of the forefoot with the 3D insole. A statistically significant difference was seen only in the left foot (p<.01). The maximum value under the midfoot was the highest with the 3D insole (p<.001). No statistically significant difference was detected on the values under the rearfoot. In the case of vertical ground reaction force (GRF), statistically significant difference was seen only in the left side rearfoot (p<.01). However, static balance values (ENV, REC, RMS, Total Length, Sway velocity, and Length/ENV) did not show significant differences by the type of insole. Conclusion: These results show that functional insoles can decrease plantar pressure and GRF under the forefoot and rearfoot. Moreover, functional insoles can dislodge the overload of the rearfoot and forefoot to the midfoot. However, functional insoles do not affect the static balance in the elderly.