14 DAY TRIAL // Dorothy would have probably been spared the long trek down the yellow brick road (and the encounter with the wicked witch) if her silver shoes just piped up and told her all she had to do was knock her heels together. India has decided to spare its citizens that frustration.
What you see in the photos above and below are smartshoes. And yes, we do mean the single word, because they are the latest example of wearable technology, like smartwatches and augmented reality headsets.
Indian startup company Ducere Technologies Pvt. has revealed the Lechal smartshoes. Their name means “take me along” in Hindi.
Only it's not the shoes that are supposed to be taken along, but the shoes that take you along with them. You see, they are smart enough to literally guide your steps.
They don't have some strange, gravitational power to actually push or pull your feet in this or that direction of course. That would be creepy and hazardous.
Instead, Ducere chose the only slightly less creepy option of giving the Lechal the ability to inform you when you're supposed to take a turn.
They sync with Google Maps, you see. They essentially become a wearable GPS device (Global Positioning System), though you need to be running the app on your smartphone, since the shoes don't have their own processing capability or storage.
So, first you input your destination into your phone, then you leave it in your pocket and listen to the buzzing of your left or right shoe to know when to change direction. It's not quite the same as having shoes that can talk, but that would probably draw odd looks anyway.
Ducere Technologies will start selling the Bluetooth-connected Lechal shoes in September, less than two months from now. The price will be of $100 / €74.
The vibrating shoes account for 23 international and Indian patents. Ducere believes the Lechal shoes can help not only regular people easily find their way somewhere, but also the 285 million visually-impaired people in the world. Indeed, even those with hearing problems will benefit.
Joggers, tourists and mountain bikers are another category of people that could greatly benefit from Ducere's invention. All in all, not bad for a company established only recently, in 2011, and which has only 50 engineers. The shoes (and insoles of similar capabilities) have already received 25,000 pre-orders. By March, they will reach the 100,000 mark, according to Krispian Lawrence, co-founder and chief executive officer of the company.
