You are on fire! - Google + Addidas smart talkin’ shoes!

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...

Oh, Patents! - Google's wearable computer (US2013002724)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Have you seen anyone sporting Google Glass, a wearable, head-mounted computer?

The very first models are to be released this March 2013 to 1000 selected applicants who composed to the prompt:”If I had Glass….” , and then later this year, to the rest of the world. They come in 5 different colors: Tangerine, Charcoal, Shale, Cotton and Sky. With this featherweight, head-mounted computer in a tiny glass cube suspended over your right eye, you will be able, for example, to share what you are seeing in real time, take a picture, ask for directions and see them in front of you, record a message, or ask for a translation – all of this, hands free, voice-activated or with a few taps to the Glass side-arm!

Indeed, this is ubiquitous computing, at a whole new level of omnipresence and Amplifed Reality (AR). This Space-Age looking pair of spectacles has no lenses (and no plural) - Google Glass refers to the tiny glass cube embodying the computer- although eventually, you will be able to add your own prescription or sun lenses to the frame, and remove the Glass cube and its arm to dock it onto your own eyewear. Here is the official picture of the Google Glass, head-mounted computer... perfected for the ’hood :

The patent for this invention, USUS2013002724, filed by Google. Inc, titled: WEARABLE COMPUTER WITH CURVED DISPLAY AND NAVIGATION TOOL, was awarded on January 3, 2013, to a team of inventors:HEINRICH MITCHELL [US]; TAUBMAN GABRIEL [US]; GEISS RYAN[US]; BRAUN MAX [US]; HO CASEY [US]. It comes complete with …..

“….systems, methods, and devices for interfacing with a wearable heads-up display via a touch-operable input device. The wearable heads-up display may include a display element for receiving and displaying display information received from a processor, and may also include a wearable frame structure supporting the display element and having a side-arm extending away from the display element. In some embodiments, the display information may appear at least partially curved to a user. In some embodiments, only a portion of the display information is shown on the at least one display element. The side-arm may be configured to secure the heads-up display to a user's body in a manner such that the display element is disposed within a field of view of the user. The touch-operable input devices secured to the wearable frame structure is configured to sense at least one of a position and movement of a touch or finger along a planar direction relative to a surface of the input device, and to provide corresponding input information to the processor. A navigation tool may also be displayed on the at least one display element for indicating the location of the touch on the touch-operable input device”. [US2013002724]

And, here are some of the patent drawings of the wearable spectacled computer, and a picture of the final marketed product. You will notice the leap in styles from fiction to AR, from Harry Potter to state of the 21^stcentury runway fashion and the ‘hood…enough to trump all the optometrists of the world during the long patent examination process…!