These Shoes Were Made For Navigating

When people talk about wearable technology you will most likely think of smart watches, health monitoring bracelets or Google Glass, but how many of you will think about shoes? Well this is a new and potentially very lucrative development in the wearable technology market.

Developed by the Indian start-up Ducere Technologies these Bluetooth-enabled shoes are called the “Lechal” (pronounced lay-ch-al). They will sync with an app on your phone that utilizes information from Google Maps to direct the wearer toward their destination.

They do this by sending vibrations to your feet so a gentle vibration on the left shoe indicates an approaching left turn; a vibration on the right means turn right. The intensity of the vibrations can change to indicate the distance to the approaching turn so the closer you are the stronger the vibration.

The shoes were originally conceived as an aide for the visually impaired but it was soon realized that they would be useful for anyone, and they’re not just for navigation. They can record data such as miles walked, calories burned and can even be set to signal when to speed up or slow down so the wearer can achieve specific exercise targets. So these shoes can become your personal fitness trainer as well as a tour guide.

As the technology comes in the form of a complete shoe or innersoles you can add them to your favorite footwear and with the ability to detect whether you’re walking, running, riding a bike or using other transport then they have many practical applications for all but unfortunately tapping your heals together three times won’t transport you home.

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