Textile-film sensors for a comfortable intelligent pressure-sensing insole

•A intelligent pressure-sensing insole is proposed that employs textile-film sensors.•Textile-film sensors are made of soft conductive films and simple yarn electrodes.•Intelligent insole can detect body weight, posture, movements and functional shoes.•Textile-film sensors keep sufficient softness to realize good comfort of the insole. Plantar pressure monitoring is crucial for various applications in fields such as biomedicine and injury monitoring. An intelligent insole that can monitor plantar pressure distribution in real time is developed through wearable sensor technology. Sensors made of light, soft conductive films and convenient, flexible yarn electrodes are installed at primary stress positions. Static and dynamic plantar pressure distribution detection and comfort evaluation experiments are then carried out. Results show highest pressure on the heel and lowest pressure on the first phalanx. Pressures on the heel are found to decrease in air cushion sneakers by 44% in comparison to ordinary sneakers. The plantar pressure associated with running is found to be 41.0% higher than that of walking. The intelligent insole demonstrates efficacy in leveraging plantar pressure measurements to recognize weight, posture, shoes and movement, offering a simple but innovative approach to achieving reliable and multifunctional monitoring performance.