Label: Inventions
March 18, 2013
Science News: GPS Shoes
Have you ever seen the movie The Wizard of Oz? All through that story, Dorothy wishes to go home, until she finally realizes that she can get there by clicking her heels together three times while repeating "There’s no place like home."
Inspired by the idea of clicking your heels together to find your way home, a British designer named Dominic Wilcox has created a pair of GPS shoes.
That’s right. These shoes have an antenna that pokes out like a tag in the back, and when you click your heels together, it activates the GPS. Look at this photograph:
The left shoe tip has a circle of lights. The light in the middle lights up to show you that the GPS is on. And whichever one of the lights that is on in the surrounding circle points the direction that you should be going.
The right shoe’s line of lights tells the wearer how far he or she has to go. The circles light up from front to back as you get closer to your destination.
For now, this is only an experiment. But it is not hard to imagine a day not too far in the future when things that we wear, from shoes to watch bands, carry devices that keep us plugged in to data like GPS, weather information, shopping information, or even our cell phones!
Photo: Dominic Wilcox
Posted by: Seymour Simon
