5 ms·

Sometimes I lament about the lack of creativity shown here (yet another twitter/facebook/ad based company, etc) and say to myself that we, the human race, can

by guylhem 14y ago

Sometimes I lament about the lack of creativity shown here (yet another twitter/facebook/ad based company, etc) and say to myself that we, the human race, can and should do much better. But this is great- a perfect union of technology and fashion to build something that's not just cool, but ubercool, highly desirable, with many applications (say alzeihmer patients?) When was the last time you got yourself lost in a city and wanted to walk back to where you came from? Sure you can bring out your cellphone or GPS and spend some time typing an address, or use chance and your memory, but what if you could just click your shoes together and they brought you back there? Wow. It's awesome. I don't know what to say, besides "shut up and take my money" :-) There is only one drawback for me : you have to input the original gps coordinates with a USB cable. Not good. Something else, like storing coordinates on a cue (jumping twice?) or automatically storing coordinates to take you back to each of your previous stops on your road (say where you spend over 1 minute) would be better. But even without that feature, and with the ugly red inside that'll certainly turn my socks pink, I'd still buy a pair if I can upload the GPS coordinates by bluetooth :-) EDIT to add a big thank you to the original author. You made my day.

arethuza 14y ago
"Sure you can bring out your cellphone or GPS and spend some time typing an address" I tried that in the Medina of Marrakech - really didn't help much. We had to resort to the tried and tested approach of asking some of the local youths (who clearly are used to doing this) to guide us back to our hotel for a fairly small fee.
3JPLW 14y ago
> "storing coordinates on a cue (jumping twice?)" Jumping twice? No! Three clicks of the heels together, of course! It has the added advantage of being more stereotyped and should be easier to detect.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
joe_the_user 14y ago
Funny you should mention Alzheimer's... Television viewing has been associated with Alzheimer's already in some studies. If not using your brain in day-to-day activities is a factor here, these could be the shoes that lead you right there... (and yes I know, fortunately or unfortunately, these are just prototypes. Still, something to think about)
essayist 14y ago
I had the same thought about Alzheimers sufferers - I know a handful, one quite well. Alas, part of the challenge of the disease is that you're generally not able to use mental "crutches". E.g. give the person step-by-step instructions, and he misplaces them. In this case, I'd guess that advanced sufferers would most likely not think to look down at what their shoes were telling them or not be able to interpret what they saw. Now if there were a gentle way to have the shoes compel walking in a certain direction, you'd have something very useful for this population.
- guylhem 14y ago
  Not sure how alzheimer works, but some memories dont vanish - especially the early ones. I.E. when our generation is stuck by the disease (if no cure has been found) will we forget how to use cell phones or a web browser ?? So early technology exposure could change a lot about how the disease impact life. Now if such shoes could exist soon, and people could be exposed to them in an early age, yes that would be a real game change about the impact of alzheimer. (if I m correct about how it works)
- femto 14y ago
  > Now if there were a gentle way to have the shoes compel walking in a certain direction,.. How about Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS), demonstrated by NTT in 2005 [1,2]? There's also a GVS implementation using an Arduino [3], so it is ripe for integration, especially given the availability of a GPS shield for the Arduino. An auto-homing human! [1] http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/SiggraphBeispiel/16-maeda.pdf http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/S... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc [3] http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html

by guylhem 14y ago

arethuza 14y ago

"Sure you can bring out your cellphone or GPS and spend some time typing an address" I tried that in the Medina of Marrakech - really didn't help much. We had to resort to the tried and tested approach of asking some of the local youths (who clearly are used to doing this) to guide us back to our hotel for a fairly small fee.

3JPLW 14y ago

> "storing coordinates on a cue (jumping twice?)" Jumping twice? No! Three clicks of the heels together, of course! It has the added advantage of being more stereotyped and should be easier to detect.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

joe_the_user 14y ago

Funny you should mention Alzheimer's... Television viewing has been associated with Alzheimer's already in some studies. If not using your brain in day-to-day activities is a factor here, these could be the shoes that lead you right there... (and yes I know, fortunately or unfortunately, these are just prototypes. Still, something to think about)

essayist 14y ago

I had the same thought about Alzheimers sufferers - I know a handful, one quite well. Alas, part of the challenge of the disease is that you're generally not able to use mental "crutches". E.g. give the person step-by-step instructions, and he misplaces them. In this case, I'd guess that advanced sufferers would most likely not think to look down at what their shoes were telling them or not be able to interpret what they saw. Now if there were a gentle way to have the shoes compel walking in a certain direction, you'd have something very useful for this population.

guylhem 14y ago
Not sure how alzheimer works, but some memories dont vanish - especially the early ones. I.E. when our generation is stuck by the disease (if no cure has been found) will we forget how to use cell phones or a web browser ?? So early technology exposure could change a lot about how the disease impact life. Now if such shoes could exist soon, and people could be exposed to them in an early age, yes that would be a real game change about the impact of alzheimer. (if I m correct about how it works)
femto 14y ago
> Now if there were a gentle way to have the shoes compel walking in a certain direction,.. How about Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS), demonstrated by NTT in 2005 [1,2]? There's also a GVS implementation using an Arduino [3], so it is ripe for integration, especially given the availability of a GPS shield for the Arduino. An auto-homing human! [1] http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/SiggraphBeispiel/16-maeda.pdf http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/S... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc [3] http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html