Reducing running pain and injury A running shoe that senses pain could help prevent injury for runners and joggers. Industrial Technologies © Thinkstock Running is one of the most popular and commonly practised sports in many European countries and can reduce blood pressure, obesity and stress. However, it is also one of the most injury-prone activities. To reduce such risks, the RUNSAFER (Development of a running shoe with embedded electronics providing real time biomechanical feedback to reduce injury risk and enhance motivation, and a web portal allowing real training management) project created a new running shoe that can correct poor habits or patterns that cause injury. The runner uses a smartphone application and a website to manage the feedback collected from the shoe. With information provided directly, the runner can self-correct immediately. Funded by the European Commission, RUNSAFER studied how running affects the body. The expert consortium identified how the body deals with the energy and forces created while running. The patterns of movement created in the body with muscle and force are directly measurable in the foot. Using focus and test groups to create measurable running patterns, a set of training recommendations were formulated. The running system consists of a microelectronic measurement system embedded in shoes, able to gather and transmit the main biomechanical parameters during running. The information is wirelessly transmitted to the mobile phone of the runner while running. A freeware mobile phone application informs in real time about the planned activity and performance achieved, suggesting modifications to change the running pattern in order to avoid running injuries. The mobile phone application has the possibility to integrate additional worthy information such as heart rate or global positioning provided by other commercial devices. After the running activity, the runner is able to download all the generated running information in a web portal, where services to manage such training information are available. This web portal allows the generation of training plans, recommendations and follow-up on training improvements. Moreover, it includes web 2.0. functionalities, allowing the user to be in contact with other runners worldwide and to build and share content such as running routes and footwear information. The website and smartphone application can help reduce injury and increase the resilience of runners. Keywords Running, injury, running shoe, biomechanical, microelectronic measurement
