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A Running Shoe For Agent 86?
manganese4 writes "The New York Times (free reg. req.) is reporting on a new shoe from Adidas that contains a ~10KHz chip capable of changing the shoe's characteristics to meet the runner's need. From the article:
'Adidas executives say the shoe is no gadget-dependent gimmick... Each second, a sensor in the heel can take up to 20,000 readings and the embedded electronic brain can make 10,000 calculations, directing a tiny electric motor to change the shoe. The goal is to make the shoe adjust to changing conditions and the runner's particular style while in use. The shoes will have push-button controls, light-emitting diodes to display settings and an instruction manual on a CD-ROM that will advise wearers on, among other things, how to change the battery after every 100 hours of use.' I wonder if the CPU can be overclocked?"
Still no cure for cancer...
Please. I mean, this is like saying the Reebok Pump was "analog technology capable of generating an infinite number of support positions." GIMMICK. Nothing more. But get a famous basketball player to endorse it, charge $200 for it, and it'll fly off the shelves.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
I've only ever seen passive electronics in sports equipment; this shoe won't be legal in most professional sports.
Make it solid state and durable. You should have no problems with something that amounts to little more than a processor, battery, some flash memory and some sensors.
There are far more stressful environments for computers in military and industrial settings.
I totally agree with this. Think of the ways they could have produced power from this. piezo-electric with the vibrations and stomping on the ground (which would probably absorb some of the shock anyway), stirling (or whatever creates changes energy between the heat difference) due to the foot getting hot (which may cool it down some), the swatch thing (a swinging weight with attached magnet to charge a capacitor).
You know what really would have been badass. If they added bluetooth capability between it and a pda so you can track your workouts wirelessly. Then create a bluetooth heart rate monitor with a watch that would intergrate the entire system. You could modify your step and check your heart rate at the same time. I should start working on the patent...
tiny electric motor? with a drivetrain? that wouldn't be my first thought... seems like they could make the sole out of something spongelike containing magnetorheological fluids and some electomagnets to vary the stiffness and sponginess
we're still stuck with replacing batteries.
if the processor doesn't use alot of power, I'd think if they include some sort of kinetic power generator, that it won't need batteries.
100 hours of non-rechargable battery life?? That's like two week's worth of use! How many times do you think a user is going to bother changing the battery before giving up and just using them like any other shoe?
when it comes down to it, the shoe is not going to make the difference between teh winner and the loser. in fact, these shoes would probably be more of a hinderance in a race than anything else. with a motor and all that other stuff, they're gonna weigh more. it won't be all that much more, but enough to make a difference. plus peopel generally have specific shoes for training and shoes for racing. these would be more of a training thing than a racing thing since training can be harder on your feet/body than the actual race. they don't actively improve your performance like other sporting equipment, they actively improve your comfort. yes i realize comfort can improve your performance, but you're gonna want something very lightweight for the race itself.
please me, have no regrets.
"an instruction manual on a CD-ROM that will advise wearers on, among other things, how to change the battery"
So, does these shoes have a CD-ROM-drive built-in or how one is going to use the manual on the road? Because, it would suck quite royally ass if the BSOD strikes while running at the woods and you have to try to figure out, how to reboot your shoes. And what if the batteries run out? The only thing you can do with the manual is to wave it and hope someone equipped with pair of AAA-batteries (or whatever the shoes are using) and a laptop would see you (a laptop is required because the manual contains the instructions, how to change batteries).
These shoes will bring us to a totally new level of complexity of having some exercise.
This wouldn't be such a big thing at this point. It would give a little advantage, but the best would probably still be the best. The problem is that this would open a whole new can of worms. Then you would have judges spending their time approving or disapproving other active measures as well, and less runners actually in it for the spirit of the run.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
This would be really impressive if the power will be taken from the kinetic of the person who wears the shoe. This is nowadays std-technology for watches, so why don't they use similar tricks for their shoes? The energy produced by a walking human being above 50kg should be more then enough.
When I saw this article in the NYTimes this morning, I first asked myself would you be able to underclock it to get a better than 100-hour lifetime of the batteries. I mean, who wants to change their shoes' batteries every four days?
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