Safe Sole

Summary

This was designed for the #wearable fusion challenge. The idea for the design was to create an unnoticeable, easy-to-use and easy-to-charge wearable. This led to the choice of creating a shoe insert based on one's shoe that would be impossible to notice. The electronics integrated into this example design are two rechargeable button cells, a type-c female charging port, two accelerometers(one front, one back), a sim card module, and the main control board. -- Either one or two inserts could be used, only one is necessary, at the moment second would only provide redundancy.

Use

The sole is designed to either replace or go under the current sole in one's shoes and is custom fit using fusion 360's tools. The wearable would likely need to be charged daily with the current battery capacity though this could be increased with better or larger batteries. The Safe Sole would have the ability to send and receive SMS messages and through the sim card and get a rough location based on cell tower distance. The two accelerometers are used to integrate simple gesture controls(tapping foot three times for example) with the foot that can send out alerts; this could be to parents, friends or the police. Because the wearable is on ones' shoe it is unlikely any assailant would notice these gestures so they can be sent without the fear of escalating the situation. Different gestures could be integrated and would be fairly accurate due to both the heel and toe accelerometer sensors. The different gestures could correspond to different levels of danger and actions such as sending an SMS with the user's current location or notifying the police. Additionally, thanks to the inconspicuous nature of the desire in the unfortunate event of a kidnapping or hostage situation the victim's shoes are unlikely to be removed; unlike phones, wrist or other wearables. Finally, as SMS messages could be both sent and received from the wearable the location of the device can be requested at any time. --- It is important to note that the user cannot read or send their own personal SMS messages with the device, the messages are meant to be interpreted or sent by the control board based on predetermined functionality.

Design

The Safe Sole should be printed in flexible material and the electronics are inserted halfway through the print at a layer height of 2.5mm. Where the majority of pressure is placed from the foot(heel, toes) the wearable has a trigonal pattern to increase comfort, while the areas with less force house the electronics. The design also has an easily accessible type-c charger and is the only input required from the user after the device is complete. The shape of the Safe Sole insert can be and should be tailored to each user's foot. This ensures it fits perfectly for any given shoe and the electronics can be extracted and reused in future prints for growing children to save on costs. -- The file included is based my shoe which is a size 11.5 Nike shoe.