Recently, there has been a great progress in biomechanical analysis of the foot. High-tech equipment and complex foot models are available and allow us to perform a thorough, quantitative and objective biomechanical foot analysis. These include:
- Force platform: measures the absolute force under the foot while walking
- Pressure plate: measures the pressure distribution under the foot while walking
- Marker based 3D motion analysis system: measures while walking the movement of pre-defined points on the foot, as well as the relative motion of the foot segments relative to each other.
- Dynamic 3D scanner: measures the total foot surface, its movement and deformation while walking.
This quantitative analysis is applied to the 100 feet that were also analysed by the foot experts. The results of the analyses are incorporated in a cluster algorithm, in order to look for clusters of feet with the same features: ‘foot types’. What biomechanical characteristics typically go together, what characteristics don’t ever go together? To what extent can we classify this variation into ‘foot types’? And a question that immediately arises, which forms an important impetus for further research: to what extent do these foot types have a tendency to develop certain symptoms?
