An Auditory Feedback System to Improve the Foot Pressure Balance for Runners

This paper proposes an auditory feedback system for adjusting the foot pressure balance of runners equally between the left and right feet. A wireless shoe system that measures foot plantar pressure in real time was proposed, and two types of auditory feedback mechanisms were provided and evaluated: 1) "Footstep" with a constant 440-Hz sound presented at the time of contact and 2) "Pitch change" that adaptively changes the sound to 880 Hz for the foot when a higher foot load is detected. The results of the user studies did not show a significant change in foot pressure difference with the proposed technique. The influence of the two auditory feedbacks on foot pressure was different for each subject; however, we confirmed the change of foot pressure balance by the change of sound.