Conductive inks for medical research

Eptatech’s Stretchable Electronics technology lets University of Pisa realize the sensorized sock

Millions of people in the world are affected by neurodegenerative diseases nowadays and these figures are bound to triplicate in the future. To promptly recognize these diseases is of fundamental importance in order to limit their damages and to slow down their progress.

Gait analysis can play a key role in the identification of such pathologies, especially in early stages. As a matter of fact one of the first clear symptoms is an irregular stride that, as for Parkinson’s disease, emerges before the well-known tremor. The systems employed nowadays for gait analysis are cumbersome, invasive, expensive, they need a qualified help and can be used almost exclusively in an equipped laboratory.

In order to solve these issues, “Wearable & Biosensing” group at University of Pisa developed Ephi Spa, a sensorized sock for step analysis which is comfortable and easy to use.

It appears as a plain sock in which pressure sensors are distributed on the sole of the foot for step phases recognition. The sensorized sock is connected to a wireless electronics that elaborates data and send them to a computer.

The sensors have been realized by the succession of some conductive fabric layers that constitute a pressure sensitive matrix. The conductive traces on the layers have been realized with Eptatech’s inks and technology.