CabBoots
As you may know at Ars Electronica is very difficult to see projects that have some market potentialities, basically just because it is a festival very focused on “art”. But its secondary technology focus permits to have every year at least a couple of hosted projects that would make many costumer happy. Last year one could have been Tenori-On by Toshio Iwai, this year one was definitely CabBoots by Martin Frey.
The actual prototype
CabBoots, basically, is an interface for pedestrian guidance applications that uses the shoes to communicate tactilely with the users instead of using the usual visual or audio signals. The concept is basically to replicate the feeling we have when following a path in the ground, so that we can feel with our feet its borders and react instinctively to keep the right direction.
Illustration of the path concept
The current prototype consists in a pair of shoes connected wirelessly to a computer. The shoes have big and wooden soles with inside different sensors and pretty rough mechanics to simulate, in the case the user is moving away from the path, an uneven ground. The strength of this tactile communication is that it’s totally not invasive for us but also for the others. Can you imagine if everyone had a vocal navigation system what would happen in crowded spots? The intensity of the signal I presume could be easily reduced after the user starts getting used to it.
The creator saw an immediate utility for blind people, and definitely there is, but I’m sure this can have some possibilities also for a broader audience.
Augmented simulation
It’s easy to think how the actual rough aesthetic of the product can become much more attractive after engineering studies, all these mechanical parts, in facts, could be easily replaced with tinier and more sophisticate ones. Instead of using wooden mechanics, its creator talks about “pneumatic or electrorheological fluid driven actuators”. I would prefer to see air cushions and I have in mind a company that could be probably interested, especially if we consider that recently they showed no fear on interfacing shoes with tech devices like ipods, guess who?
The computer also, in the future, could be easily replaced by the cell phone, or pda, if not being able to be embedded in the shoes.
I look forward to see how this projects goes since I really like the subtle concept, but unfortunately I think a very big sponsor is needed to refine it and make it attractive enough for end users. I hope Martin can find it.