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US 9,201,413 B2Granted
Protective patient footwear design and manufacturing system and methods
OwnerJason R. Hanftinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This disclosure relates to a design and manufacturing system for protective patient footwear, as well as related methods. The system includes suitable hardware, software, and related peripherals, which function to acquire data related to the patient's particular footwear needs, such as by three-dimensional scanning. A design subsystem interfaces with the inputted data to permit the resulting design to reflect particular foot conditions in the design and subsequent manufacturing process. A manufacturing subsystem receives the resulting design and includes hardware and software to manufacture the protective patient footwear.
Claims15
A computerized system for the automated design and manufacture of patient protective footwear, comprising:
- a scanning subsystem including a user interface and a lower extremity scanner, the scanning subsystem adapted to receive input related to a patient's lower extremity for which protective footwear is to be designed and manufactured;
- a design engine implemented on a computer having programmable memory and at least one processor that executes instructions stored in the programmable memory, wherein the design engine is programmed to process the lower extremity input into a design for the protective footwear, wherein the design engine is programmed to alter the design in response to receiving inputs indicating at least one of the conditions selected from the group consisting of dermatologic conditions, orthopedic conditions, neurological conditions, biomechanical conditions, surgical conditions, and wherein the design engine generates an outputted design in which the one or more conditions are reflected in the outputted design;
- and
- a computer-aided manufacturing subsystem programmed to receive data related to the outputted design and manufacture the protective footwear corresponding to the outputted design,
- wherein at least one of the design engine and the scanning subsystem includes first suitable programming to generate design data for the protective footwear corresponding to at least one accommodation for a prior toe amputation, and wherein the design data generated by the first suitable programming corresponds to at least one accommodation selected from the group consisting of an addition of insole material to fill voids from the amputation, a modification of materials under unamputated foot portions to relieve foot-related forces due to the amputation, inclusion of at least one of stiffer alternative materials or more flexible alternative materials at a corresponding location on the footwear, such alternate materials corresponding to a gait abnormality related to the amputation.
2 more elements
A computerized system for the automated design and manufacture of patient protective footwear, comprising:
- a scanning subsystem including a user interface and a lower extremity scanner, the scanning subsystem adapted to receive input related to a patient's lower extremity for which protective footwear is to be designed and manufactured;
- and
- a design engine implemented on a computer having programmable memory and at least one processor that executes instructions stored in the programmable memory, wherein the design engine is programmed to process the lower extremity input into a design for the protective footwear, wherein the design engine is programmed to alter the design in response to receiving inputs indicating at least one of the conditions selected from the group consisting of dermatologic conditions, orthopedic conditions, neurological conditions, biomechanical conditions, surgical conditions, and wherein the design engine generates an outputted design in which the one or more conditions are reflected in the outputted design;
- wherein at least one of the design engine and the scanning subsystem includes first suitable programming to generate design data for the protective footwear corresponding to at least one accommodation for a prior toe amputation, and, wherein at least one of the design engine and the scanning subsystem includes further suitable programming to generate design data for the protective footwear corresponding to at least one accommodation for a hammer toe condition.
1 more element
A computer-implemented method of designing and manufacturing patient protective footwear comprising the steps of:
- scanning a patient's lower extremity to detect dimensions related to the protective footwear to be designed and manufactured;
- receiving inputs indicating at least one of the lower extremity conditions selected from the group consisting of dermatologic conditions, orthopedic conditions, neurological conditions, biomechanical conditions, and surgical conditions
- generating a design in which the one or more conditions corresponding to the inputs received are reflected in the design;
- and
- manufacturing the protective footwear based on the design,
- wherein the step of generating a design includes the step of generating design data for the protective footwear corresponding to at least one accommodation for a prior toe amputation, and wherein the step of generating design data includes generating design data corresponding to at least one accommodation selected from the group consisting of an addition of insole material to fill voids from the amputation, a modification of materials under unamputated foot portions to relieve foot-related forces due to the amputation, inclusion of at least one of stiffer alternative materials or more flexible alternative materials at a corresponding location on the footwear, such alternate materials corresponding to a gait abnormality related to the amputation.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.