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At the moment, in terms of both research and commercial products, smart shoe technology and applications seem not to attract the same magnitude of attention compared to smart garments and other smart wearables such as wrist watches and wrist bands. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by discussing issues regarding smart shoe sensing technologies, smart shoe sensor placements, factors that affect sensor placements and finally the areas of smart shoe applications.

Through a review of relevant literature, this study first and foremost attempts to explain what constitutes a smart shoe and subsequently discusses the current trends in smart shoe applications. Discussed in this study are relevant sensing technologies, sensor placement and areas of smart shoe applications.

This study outlined 13 important areas of smart shoe applications. It also uncovered that majority of smart shoe functionality are physical activity tracking, health rehabilitation and ambulation assistance for the blind. Also highlighted in this review are some of the bottlenecks of smart shoe development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review paper focused on smart shoe applications, and therefore serves as an apt reference for researchers within the field of smart footwear.

In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) has started to be used for manufacturing real functional parts and assemblies for critical applications in aerospace, automotive, and machinery industries. Most complex or assembled parts require internal features (IF) such as holes, channels, slots, or guides for locational and mating requirements. Therefore, it is critical to understand and compare the structural and mechanical properties of additively manufactured and conventionally machined IFs.

In this study, mechanical and microstructural properties of Inconel 718 (Inc718) alloy internal features, manufactured either as-built with AM or machining of additively manufactured (AMed) part thereafter were investigated.

The results showed that the average ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of additively manufactured center internal feature (AM-IF) is almost analogous to the machined internal feature (M-IF). However, the yield strength of M-IF is greater than that of AM-IF due the greater surface roughness of the internal feature in AM-IF, which is deemed to surpass the effect of microstructure on the mechanical performance. The results of digital image correlation (DIC) analysis suggest that AM-IF and M-IF conditions have similar strain values under the same stress levels but the specimens with as built IF have a more locally ductile region around their IF, which is confirmed by hardness test results. But this does not change global elongation behavior. The microstructural evolution starting from as-built (AB) and heat-treated (HT) samples to specimens with IF are examined. The microstructure of HT specimens has bimodal grain structure with d phase while the AB specimens display a very fine dendritic microstructure with the presence of carbides. Although they both have close values, machined specimens have a higher frequency of finer grains based on SEM images.

It was shown that the concurrent creation of the IF during AM can provide a final part with a preserved ultimate tensile strength and elongation but a decreased yield strength. The variation in UTS of AM-IF increases due to the surface roughness near the internal feature as compared to smooth internal surfaces in M-IF. Hence, the outcomes of this study are believed to be valuable for the industry in terms of determining the appropriate production strategy of parts with IF using AM and postprocessing processes.