Putting Diabetics' Best Foot Forward with 'Smart Socks' From: Medical Design Technology - 05/11/2015 There is a new class of mechanical sensors which can be used to measure deformations, forces and pressures. Because of their high elasticity and their soft and flexible characteristic the sensors are especially suitable for integration into woven or knitted fabrics. Therefore it is possible to integrate them into medical or health care devices, (e.g. for preventing bedsores or for localizing the pressure distribution in shoes). A novel kind of pressure stocking is set to help protect against foot wounds via an integrated sensor system that sends a warning when foot pressure is too high. To ensure that poorly healing wounds don’t occur in the first place. The Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Wurzburg have developed a special stocking with 40 very fine, dielectric elastomer sensors that measure compression load and distribution for diabetes patients, taking over the job usually performed by the nerves in their feet. Read the entire article at: http://www.mdtmag.com/blogs/2015/05/putting-diabetics-best-foot-forward-smart-socks Link: Pressure-monitoring stockings to prevent wounds in diabetics http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2015/may/Pressure-monitoring-stockings-to-prevent-wounds-in-diabetics.html