IDEA: non-newtonian material to assist gel protection inlays

Hi,
shoes and other sturdy protection gear by their nature will cause blisters and skin shaving as they go about protecting the body. Being harder than skin means that there area likely to be pressure points that can be painful. Often these are caused by the body shape being irregular curved and "bumpy" -- near the Fibula for instance or at the edge of the protection material.

Applying conventional gel packs to such areas provide some protection. The gel is designed to flow away from the high pressure area making a dent to fill by the body contour. Examples for this are gel socks [1] and memory foam [2]. However, as gel does have a constant viscosity the denting effect also introduces a sponginess that absorbs some of the desirable tactile experience for walking, gripping or other tactile tasks. This is irrespective of the pressure being short lived or permanent. I imagine that this can be distracting and/or tiring. Especially the short lived pressure does help the body move as our nerves can feel how the body part or shoe is positioned.

I suggest to use a non-newtonian [3] memory material similar to the custard combined with gel or as an additional gel sock or gel layer to complement the denting effect of normal gel with a temporary hardening. Unlike gel, a non-newtonian material will offer different viscosity for sharp and hard pressures than soft and gentle movements.

The theory is that if there is a sharp defined pressure point, the gel will move away as per its viscosity but not after first hardening briefly around the pressure "point" making it a dynamic pressure "area" for the tactil feedback. Desirable is a memory effect that will not only soften hard forces but also eliminated the spongy feeling of the material. The movement of the shoe for example will be more direct as the non-newtonian properties delay the smoothing of the pressure point a little bit for pushing off. However, the effect must be subtle enough so that the gel can push away from the pressure point to not damage the body.


[1]http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=gel+socks
[2]http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=memory foam
[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Newtonian_fluid