Pascal Bornet is a LinkedIn Top Voice on tech and AI. (Top Voices are members of a small, invitation-only group of experts.) He posts interesting videos of tech used in industries, from pollution control to manufacturing.
This week he posted a video of “smart” shoes. The shoes store the kinetic energy from walking in a battery. The battery can then charge a cell phone from a USB port on the side of the shoe. There is a camera on the heel (to check who is following you). And a camera on the toes for taking selfies, assuming you can lift your leg high enough. Plus self-warming soles.
I did a quick search and discovered that this was a 2022 April Fool's Day prank by a company called Ixiga. You can watch the video on Youtube.
It could be real
When I watched the video, my first thought was not: “This is fake.” My first thought was that cameras on shoes are silly and creepy. But I loved the idea of self-warming soles in winter. Checking through the comments, some people had found out it was a hoax. But many people assumed the shoes were real. There were questions about the price, and how to protect the USB port from dirt.
And it could have been real. There is a privacy concern around the cameras, which is an ethical rather than a tech issue. I don't know how far you need to walk to generate enough power to charge a cell phone. But companies have created kinetic dance floors to store the energy created by people walking and dancing on them.
Think of all the other weird tech applications you may (or may not) have seen.
Vacuum cleaner shoes and smart bath mats
The Consumer Technology Association puts on an annual consumer electronics show called CES. This showcases the latest tech. It describes itself as the “most influential technology event”.
One of the items at CES 2017 was an ecology shoe. This shoe used the motion of walking to power a small vacuum cleaner that could suck up bits of dirt.
Some of the items at CES 2023 included a toilet sensor that analyzes your urine to track your health. Or you can opt for a toilet seat that measures your heart rate. Acer had a desk-bike combo that powers your devices as you peddle. If you can't afford solar panels, maybe you can get fit while you keep your fridge on during load-shedding.
Those may or may not be viable products. (The ecology shoe didn't make it to market). I even found what claims to be the first smart bath mat. It will measure your weight, body composition, posture and balance to help you reach your health. All this for only $449.
So who knows what we'll find in our shoes soon. And then we'll have to cope with people hacking our clothes to steal our personal data. I'd love to hear what weird tech devices you've found, or would like to buy.