Patent ID: 7788823

Claim:
Footwear for a user comprising: (a) a shoe sole member having at least one upper foot support surface, said at least one upper foot support surface having overall area proportions similar to at least an insole of a conventional shoe that would properly fit a user's foot, for supportive communication with the underside of said user's foot; and (b) a ground contact member located below said shoe sole member, having at least one lower ground contacting surface, said at least one lower ground contacting surface having total ground contact area proportions similar to sole and heel areas of a conventional shoe that would properly fit said user's foot, and having at least principal ground contact area proportions comparable to the principal weight-bearing areas of said user's foot; (c) a motion control apparatus comprising a four-bar linkage apparatus having at least two substantially longitudinal pivot links between at least four pivot bearings, said at least four pivot bearings being arranged in substantially vertical arrays whereby, with respect to said shoe sole member, said ground contact member motion (1) is constrained to being substantially normal to a plane of the shoe sole member, which is defined as having substantially the same relationship to said user's foot as has a uniformly padded horizontal surface upon which the user has achieved static balance while standing barefooted on the foot with which said shoe sole member is associated, (2) is further constrained to substantially maintaining pitching mode parallelism to said plane of said shoe sole member, and (3) is constrained against transverse translation, longitudinal translation, and yaw mode rotation, and wherein said ground contact member is resiliently urged downwardly toward ground, with reaction forces to said resilient urging being transmitted to said user's foot by means of said shoe sole member.