Adidas' newest creation has a brain in its sole
Christian DiBenedetto didn't want sensible shoes. Heading Adidas' "innovation team," he spent three years trying to create "intelligent footwear." As in a shoe with its own brain.
The resulting $250 running shoe, simply called 1 and hyped as "the most advanced shoe ever," debuts in December. Here's what is meant to be progress: It has a motor, battery, cable, magnetic sensor and a microprocessor.
The idea is that the shoe's magnetic sensing system under the heel, which takes 1,000 readings per second to figure how you're landing. That's fed to the shoe's microprocessor — which can make 5 million calculations per second — which, in turn, commands the motor-driven cable.
The cable then spews blinding smoke out the shoe's heel, fires a blow dart out the toe or just crashes the Internet, based on its own situation analysis.
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yeah - i know - the last paragragh is a joke - but for $250 bucks they could have added maxwell smart's phone
the shoe's "user interface" consists of two buttons that adjust for the runner's preference for softer or harder cushioning - five light-emitting diodes display the setting
new york times