A couple of Indian entrepreneurs are about to build shoe insoles that use haptic feedback to direct you to your destination.
These insoles — Lechal, from Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharma — will vibrate on the appropriate side of the shoe when it’s time to change direction. Input your destination into your smartphone and the phone plots your route. The phone’s GPS tracks your progress, and your phone signals your shoes to vibrate when it’s time to turn. (The shoe vibrates lightly when you’re far from your destination; more when you’re closer.)
And if you trip or the shoe otherwise senses that you’ve run into trouble, your phone can call for help.
They first developed this a couple of years ago for the sight-impared market, but are not going for general customers.
Pricing is $100. Preorders start March 7; it’s not clear whether these will be available outside India.
Here’s a video, which is really quite terrible at describing the product.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucK6jhdRlUY]