This week at South by Southwest (SXSW) Google has announced their new “Talking Shoes” as a not so stylish pair of Adidas high-tops. This is an experimental technology that Google has been working on and clearly they are making everything they can think of “smart” with Android technology. We aren’t sure what the practical use of talking shoes is exactly although its pretty cool just the same. Hopefully we can get a pair of these to actually test out.
Google’s “Talking Shoe” is part of their new initiative called Art, Copy & Code which is a series of experiments to re-imagine advertising as stated by them. The Art, Copy & Code is a combined project with YesYesNo’s Zachary Lieberman and Studio 5050’s Despina Papadopoulos. Between these two great minds there has been born a set of “smarter sneakers”.
You might be asking yourself what the purpose of talking shoes would be, well simply put its an advertising tool. The objective is to create advertisements using real time data to onlookers that won’t be able to look away from someones shoes that are actually talking. The current shoes being displayed at SXSW have working accelerometer, gyroscope, Bluetooth, and speaker on the tongue.
Official Description of the Shoes per Google:
By connecting a pair of sneakers to the web, we’re creating unique opportunities between physical objects and digital ad spaces. Every move the user makes generates data that’s captured using an accelerometer, gyroscope and pressure sensors. That data then gets pushed to a web appon your mobile phone and translated in real-time into funny and motivating commentary. That commentary then gets pushed to banners and social media, creating new, interesting content in the digital world from something happening live in the physical one.
As always and seen with Google’s Project Glass these Talking Shoes may not be available to the general public for some time if ever. We will however try to stay up to date with its progress and market release. It looks like at least Google is looking forward continuously when it comes to innovation and thats a positive in our minds. Stay tuned for more information as available.
Source: Art-Copy-Code