Design and Production of Intelligent Knee Brace (To Provide Feedback on Knee Flexion Angle for Injury Prevention Programs)

Depending on the type of application, smart textiles have special capabilities such as controlling one's physical condition and health, as well as recording and sending vital signs of the body. In sports activities, smart clothing can monitor the amount and type of athlete's activity, speed of movement, and control and report joint movements. These smart textiles can improve athletic performance by correcting movements and thereby preventing or reducing sports injuries. In this regard, a smart knee brace can be a useful tool to assist in lower-risk performance and prevent the athlete from putting their knee joint at risk. In this project, the researcher intends to take the first step in making this knee brace. The first step is to build a knee brace that can receive feedback from the knee flexion angle. For this purpose, the smart knee brace is designed from three components: signal processor, length-sensitive textile, and information processing software. Analog data obtained from a non-wavelength sensitive signal processor is converted to digital data, connected to the router via wireless chip, and received via Wi-Fi. The TCP Telnet Terminal application installed on the mobile phone is also used to view the data. To check the numbers recorded by the knee, the smart fabric was first rested and stretched, and the numbers recorded. Then the speed of pulling and turning of the fabric was evaluated, and at the end, the knees were positioned at different angles, and the numbers were recorded.