
GPS equipped shoes that will lead you home with LED signals - mxfh
http://www.dominicwilcox.com/gpsshoes.htm
======
guylhem
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.

~~~
essayist
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.

~~~
femto
> 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/S...](http://www.semanticmedia-
showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/SiggraphBeispiel/16-maeda.pdf)

[2] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc>

[3] <http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html>

------
jl6
_Dave Lister: Sometimes I think it's cruel giving machines a personality. My
mate Petersen once brought a pair of shoes with artificial intelligence. Smart
Shoes, they were called. It was a neat idea. No matter how blind drunk you
were, they would always get you home. Then he got ratted one night in Oslo,
and woke up the next morning in Burma. See, the shoes got bored just going
from his local to the flat. They wanted to see the world, man, y'know? He had
a helluva job getting rid of them. No matter who he sold them to, they'd show
up again the next day! He tried to shut them out, but they just kicked the
door down, y'know?

Arnold Rimmer: Is this true?

Dave Lister: Yeah! Last thing he heard, they'd sort of, erm, robbed a car and
drove it into a canal. They couldn't steer, y'see.

Arnold Rimmer: Really?!

Dave Lister: Yeah. Petersen was really, really blown away by it. He went to
see a priest. The priest told him, he said, it was alright, and all that, and
the shoes were happy, and they'd gone to heaven. Y'see, it turns out shoes
have soles. _

\-- Red Dwarf, 1988.

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tisme
When I saw the 'northskirt' the first time I had an idea similar to this one.
Vibrate the little buzzer in your phone more aggressively when you're going
the wrong way, slowing it down as you are going the right way. Simple, only
one 'bit' output needed (you could even tape a slave buzzer to your ankle or
so). Instant pigeon sense of direction where-ever you go. No peeking at the
screen required. Special signal: three rapid buzzes when you've reached your
destination.

~~~
dokidoki
I saw a news story about a similar invention, but it had a buzzer in each
shoe, and could help blind people know when to make a turn to get to their
destination.

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kstenerud
cancelbubble, your account was hellbanned 614 days ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2102219>

~~~
oinksoft
I always want to say this, but figure that I would get banned as well. Fun.

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jneal
I love this, such a creative creation - although I'm not much sure I'd wear
it, fashionably speaking, but it's a great idea. Setting coordinates via USB
isn't the best, it'd be awesome if I could use my smart phone to connect to
the shoes and set the GPS coordinates.

~~~
Buzaga
a great idea? I guess you mean as art/concept, right? as a product... I can't
think of anyone buying it except as a wacky gift, ironic footwear,
collecting...

I mean, the "User Experience" of the interface to programming a shoe to
highlight directions will be bad, USB won't do, if you could use your
smartphone + wifi/bluetooth...why not just look a map in the phone? specially
since you'd need to walk looking at your shoes to know where to go...

a practical use: adventure sports, hiking, trekking and the like(they already
have to prepare for the thing, configuring the shoes would just be another
thing, and it would help their safety)... alzheimer ehhhhhhh, I think not.
Alzheimer sufferers probably need more care than just knowing where's their
homes, and public health probably wouldn't like the idea of lost alzheimer
pacients walking somewhere they don't know where it is guided by shoes and
distracted from road/cars/etc

~~~
jneal
Not great as a product no, but in concept yes. I personally haven't seen
anything like this, and I just think a much better job could be done. I agree
you could just use your phone if you were able to update GPS coordinates via
your phone, but then you have to keep out your phone to know which way to go
instead of just looking down at your feet. Off topic, I think something like
Google Goggles GPS would be far more interesting.

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s_henry_paulson
This is more art, as it is only borderline practical at best.

A shoe with a traditional magnetic compass might be more practical from a
usability standpoint.

This makes me miss the trend of wristwatches with compasses embedded in the
bands.

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antonioevans
I see a large college kid market for this. After the bars.

~~~
tobych
Designated shoes.

~~~
bduerst
Requires [some] motor skills to operate.

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tlrobinson
This could be great for people with Alzheimers, or kids.

