Robert Miller, executive director of technical research at AT&T is showing off AT&T's "smart slippers" prototype here at ATA 2010 in San Antonio, according to a report in Healthcare IT News. We have written about Miller’s smart innersole project a number of times in the past: AT&T, Texas Instruments and New York-based start-up 24Eight have created smart innersoles that can tell how well walkers distribute their weight and can determine if their balance is deteriorating and whether they are heading for a fall. The insoles aim to enable doctors to know just when to restrict elderly patients to wheelchairs before they could hurt themselves. About one fall per day occurs in a nursing home with 200 patients, and one in 20 of those falls typically leads to a fatal complication within six months.

Interestingly, Miller told HIT News that 24Eight developed the underlying technology for videogames, including the popular “Dance Dance Revolution,” which includes a footpad that keeps tracks of a dancer’s foot position.

“We can almost infallibly detect falls,” Miller told HIT News.

More on the "smart" slippers over at HIT News