Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Google’s smart talkin’ shoes, developed in a partnership with Addidas, include Bluetooth technology for connection to your mobile device, a gyroscope for motion sensing, an accelerometer to further quantity energy expenditure, pressure sensors on the soles, and a speaker to give you voiced feedback on your level of activity…That is, the shoes will admonish you when you are lazy, and cheer for you when you are active!...
“I love the wind in my laces” the shoes will tell you…. when you start to run! “Call 911, because you are on fire” they will say, when you are playing basketball… And, “This is boring…” if you are just sitting on a park bench…
These shoes must be designed for Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s move!” campaign to solve the national childhood obesity epidemic. In any event, they are part of a trend in health monitoring devices (like Nike Fuel Band or Motion X's Jawbone UP) that give you feedback on your body metrics and activity, except that the Google + Addidas smart talkin’ shoes really talk to you, and are sarcastic about it too, if you are lazy and inactive!
On the up side, Explorers testing the product have mentioned that these shoes are motivational since the testers found themselves trying to impress the built-in coach with a superior level of activity!
The Google + Addidas smart talkin’ shoes were unveiled at an SXSW® - South by Southwest conference & festival, in Austin, during the week of March 8 to17, 2013. There are apparently no plans yet for marketing this prototype of the smart talkin’shoes.
This is just another one of Google’s brilliant partnerships for exploration in the domain of ubiquitous computing, at the intersection of wearable computers, the Internet and the human body. Stay tuned! And listen below...
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