[Umar Qattan] is in tune with his sole and is trying hard to listen to what it has to say.
At a low level, [Umar] is building an insole with an array of force sensors in it. These sensors are affixed to a flexible PCB which is placed in a user’s shoe. A circuit containing a ESP32, IMU, and haptic feedback unit measure the sensors and send data back to a phone or a laptop.
What’s most interesting are the possibilities opened by the data he hopes to collect. The first application he proposes is AR/VR input. The feedback from the user’s feet plus the haptics could provide all sorts of interesting interaction. Another application is dynamically measuring a user’s gait throughout the day and exercise. People could save themselves a lot of knee pain with something like this.
[Umar] also proposes that an insert like this could record a user’s weight throughout the day. Using the data on the weight fluctuation, it should be possible to calculate someone’s metabolism and hydration from this data.
Impressive how convergent works, I just finished my master thesis with a prototype very similar to this.
A personal warning device for prevention of neuropathic ulcers in diabetes patients would be a great application.
I guess there *are* a lot of applications for this… not just one sole reason…
Sorry, I’ll see myself out…
> [Umar Qattan] is in tune with his sole and is trying hard to listen to what it has to say.
He has only one sole? That’s unfortunate, but good to know being minus a foot isn’t stopping him.
“good to know being minus a foot isn’t stopping him.”
Don’t make fun of him because he is short! (A pun in a pun in a pun, it’s punception!)
Utter punishing act to follow, ladies and gentlemen!
Computer-in-a-shoe reminds me of the Eudaemon shoe computer (worth a google). These days they could make a smaller, faster, better communicating version of it using a similar design to what is in the article, or an even more powerful microcontroller.
I remember seeing something like this somewhere: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/DonAdams.jpg