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.

This project was designed and developed by Electroland, a group of professionals focused on the usage of technology to enhance experiences in public environments, in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) in 2005.

A perspective of the project (taken from Electroland website).

The project “simply” creates visuals and sounds based on the interactions between people walking by. At first glance it could seem a simple toy but the potential of a similar concept I reckon could be very strong. We know that in our society people do not communicate with each other and there have been many projects aiming at creating opportunities for people to communicate. A story I recently heard from the funny guy from Greyworld comes to my mind, it was about people not saying a word in normal contexts like being stuck in a crowded tube wagon or while having sex but who can easily find words when wishing to complain about someone smoking cigarettes in a forbidden place. Unfortunately you cannot push people to interact because otherwise you could easily end up invading users’ privacy, but there are some moments in people’s day where maybe they are more keen on socializing, for instance I think that when we walk around the office and we come across colleagues, it is often for shyness that nobody takes the initiative to exchange just a “hi”. A project like this could definitely help break some walls we create with our shyness. As variation I could imagine implementing RFID data so the installation can eventually introduce people to each other with their names and maybe interpret the speed of the users as busy factor thus leaving fast people alone.

Another perspective of the project (taken from Electroland website).