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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?"
.. the stench of a Beowulf cluster of these things....
You can't tune the thing while running? That is so lame.
Does anyone else thing it's a bad idea to throw these sorts of components into something that's going to take a few hundred thousand 100kg (or more depending on speed/weight/height) impacts?
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These running fanatics have a screw loose. They spend a fortune on these fancy shoes looking to improve their perfomance. Yet they always get beaten by some guy from Africa that's never even owned a pair of shoes.
In things like track competitions or marathons, should such 'active' measures be allowed? I mean, what if I had a pair of smart shoes that were attached to a motorcycle...
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Human feet have thousands upon thousands of sensor sites and they feed back information to the brain which can process all the information in parallel and recognize even the slightest change in environment and adjust accordingly.
So bare feet are better than these new shoes.
I have been pwned because my
Rather than kids tying another's laces together, well have them hacking in and turning someone soles rock hard for the day.
Couldnt they have talked to Swatch or something? Why the hell should a running shoe need a battery? I mean, that's the whole point.. you RUN in them! Kinetic energy, right there! FREE for the taking!
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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.
So if it crashes, do you trip and fall? Boy, that'd suck on stairs...
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So... a 10KHz chip can make 10,000 calculations per second? Sure, as long as all those calculations take only 1 clock cycle each. And what good is a sensor that can take 20,000 samples per second if the CPU isn't powerful enough to even make use of all of them?
Honestly, what's the point? If the goal is to change the shoe characteristics, why not include a little adjustable screw so the wearer can manually change various tensions? This sounds like a lousy solution in search of a problem, and a badly marketed one at that.
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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.
If you're running forward!
No one's going to buy a shoe you can't walk backwards in.
I have been pwned because my
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...
how long before you have to PATCH them?
:p
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Geez, the ONE time the foot icon would actually make sense, it is not even used by /. editors...
I guess I know where to stick my foot next time...
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Wait up guys! My shoes have crashed...
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Once they start coming with a built in camera!Things will be looking up!
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Any shoe that's not a perfect device is taking power from your stride, compressing and expanding the rubber etc.
The only issue is whether you can get some electricity, rather than just heat, from this work. And not increase the total work in a way that would be noticed.
There were some projects to make battery chargers in shoes I recall, but they couldn't actually get as much power as they had hoped from pezio. Springs probably would be noticed.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
It's not x86 processors the title is referring to. Agent 86 was Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams) in the '60s TV series "Get Smart."
You know, ther guy with the phone in his shoe?
"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.
You know, this actually could be the first time some device would run Linux...
Not to mention boot it ;-)
And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)
IMO the best way to run is in bare feet, ie, no shoes. That probably sounds stupid to most people, but when your feet are bare, you get lots of feedback and built in reflexes from the nerves in your feet.
One importaint peice of feedback you get, is to NOT LAND ON YOUR HEELS. Your legs and feet are not designed for you land on your heels ( but shoe companys and podaitrists would like you to think so ). Instead, bare feet teaches you to land on the your forefoot ( eg, the area around the balls of your feet, just behind your toes ).
A forefoot strike has advantages over a heel strike, In breif;
Much less chance of injury ( eg shin splints, runners knee, etc ). However, during the first two weeks of learning to run with a proper forefoot strike style, I had sore calf musles. This was the 'numb, lactic acid, ive done more than I am used to' type soreness. This is something your calfs get used to quickly, just like how your biceps grow if you do bicep curls. The main reason for less inury is because the energy absorbed from each foot landing is stored/absorbed into muscles, rather than being driven up thru your bones and joints ( eg, ankle, knee, hip, and back ) as the case with heel strikes.
It stores energy form the landing, and releases it as your body moves over your foot plant.
It allows you to run with minimal vertial motion in the torso area, if your knees are bent when your foot touches the ground. As the body goes over the footplant, the leg straigtens, which keeps the torso in the same vertial position.
And as a result, you end up running very efficently. One obvious thing about running properly ( with a forefoot strike ) is that you become very very quiet, eg, almost completely silent in the feet department, quite the opposite of the comparitive racket most runners make with the enourmous heel striking boots.
Anyway, I think that the best running shoe is one which is simply like a protective layer of skin over your foot, IE, as close to running in bare feet as possible.
And the best way to run is in bare feet, but in rare cases ( or when your just starting out ), bare feet is not always practical ( eg, sharp gravel, areas that are likely to have hidden sharp things ), but 80% of places I find I can run barefoot with no problems.
If you have injurys / problems with running, then perhaps have a look at www.runningbarefoot.org or www.posetech.com, and learn how to run properly ( with a forefoot strike style ), and do not rely on shoes to do the running for you.