(Credit:
GTX)
GPS-equipped footwear isn't new. But the idea of using it to track Alzheimer's patients, which shoemaker Aetrex Worldwide and GPS experts GTX are making possible, is just great.
It will be even better if an affordable version of the service can be extended to home users. Remembering how hapless a friend felt when her granddad, who was afflicted with dementia, disappeared one day, this would have saved her all that mental anguish. The entire family had been marshaled to help in the search, and it was a day later, when they were imagining the worst, that a stranger called to say he had found her grandfather wandering aimlessly. Now that her father faces the same fate, this would certainly lessen her burden as a caregiver.
The GPS transmitters have an accuracy range of 30 feet and "geo fences" can be set so that as soon as the patient leaves a predetermined zone, a Google Map alert is sent to a cell phone, home, or office computer to locate the patient.
(Source: Crave Asia via Physorg)
Convergence: The occurrence of two or more things coming together. In this case, cars and couches, shoes and bathtubs, and last but not least, showers and aquariums. Try to wrap your brain around that!
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EPISODE 137 |
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Inchworm uses an accordian-like technology it calls iFit to grow with your kids' feet, and hopefully save some money and even the environment.
(Credit: Solent )Here's a stretch of an idea--shoes that grow with the child.
U.K.-based Fat Shoes Day--while not exactly a politically correct shop name--may just have a shoo-in with its InchWorm trainers. Taking a cue from expandable luggage bags and my favorite Tupperware collapsible FlatOut containers, these kiddie shoes utilize a technology called (in a nod to Apple) iFit.
The middle segment works like an accordion that can be extended with a button release. The result: a pair of shoes that will grow with the little tyke, in two half-size increments up to three sizes. How cool is that? Of course, there's the question of whether these trainers can tough out junior's abuse. Though if the shoe fits, this one could grow with, and on, you.
(Source: Crave Asia via Daily Mail)
OK. Maybe not everything in today's show is super cute, but it gives the ladies the chance to speak in exaggerated falsettos. Jason, on the other hand, balances all the cute with an unintentionally awkward joke about one of the newest segments. Oh, you'll see.
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EPISODE 127 |
Candy Comfort Earphones are comfy and kitschy
PBS Sprout makes iPhone apps for preschoolers
Yuruppy, a virtual-pet petting gizmo
Australian IT expert invents the shoe phone
Could the Bra Dryer save your lingerie?
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Can you heel me now? Engineer Paul Gardner-Stephen first developed his shoe phone as a theatrical prop, but later envisioned applications for remote patient monitoring.
(Credit: Ruth Mitchell)
The hollowed-out heel of one shoe houses the phone itself.
(Credit: Asthon Claridge)Ever since secret agent Maxwell Smart rang up the chief on that infamous shoe phone, geeks have mentally scoured the gadget aisles for footwear that could look dashing while doubling as a telecommunications device.
Here at Crave, we've written about wired shoe-shaped phones before, but Paul Gardner-Stephen has pretty much left those in the dust with his wearable shoe phone that can place and receive calls wirelessly.
A post-doctoral fellow in bioinformatics at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, Gardner-Stephen developed the device by hollowing out the heels on a pair of men's dress shoes with a chisel and screwdriver and placing a phone in one cavity and a Bluetooth headset in the other.
He then reassembled the heels, punching holes in the rubber soles for the phone's answer/hangup and speaker buttons and the blue LED on the headset. He added a little plastic between the heel and sole for water-resistance, charged his shoe, and started dialing up his friends (via voice).
He first developed his device as a theater prop for a local church camp, but later envisioned applying it to remote patient management--tasks like managing pulse, blood pressure, and blood oxygenation.
... Read more
(Credit:
Hypebeast)
Leave it to Nike to make a video game fashion collaboration stylishly cool. Earlier this month, we showed you a pair of its surprisingly appealing Nintendo-inspired sneakers. Well, Nike just announced its second design in the series and this one is a little more unique than the first.
The Air Max Terra Ninety takes a couple of Nike's most popular models and mashes them into a hybrid shoe reminiscent of the Air Max 90 and Max Air. The overall colorway retains the familiar Nintendo controller palette and also incorporates the Nintendo D-pad design into the midsole. Unlike other streetwear collaborations, Nike won't require you to mortgage your firstborn son to pick up a pair of the Air Max Terra Nineties. They're available now for an affordable $130.
Another pic after the break.
... Read moreSportswear maker Nike looks set to steal the limelight at this year's summer Beijing Olympics with its latest innovation, the Flywire track shoes. The company will supply the U.S. track and field team with two pieces of Flywire footwear--the Zoom Victory Spikes and Zoom Matumbo.
U.S. track and fielders will sport the Zoom Victory Spike, currently Nike's lightest middle-distance track spike, the company says.
(Credit: Crave Asia)Already creating quite a buzz in the industry with its revolutionary lightweight construction, the Flywire design is said to be inspired by the cables from a suspension bridge. It basically makes use of a strong Vectran thread arranged in a fan-shaped pattern at anchor points around the shoe. The result is a shoe that's extremely light, yet reportedly cheap and easy to manufacture.
But, just how light are the new Flywire track shoes? The Zoom Matumbo will be Nike's lightest distance track shoes at about .2 pounds per pair, while the Zoom Victory Spikes for middle distance events like the 800m and 5,000m will also weigh just about .2 pounds.
For the record, Michael Johnson's famed pair of golden track shoes at the 1996 Atlanta Games tipped the scales at about a quarter of a pound, which is lightweight even by today's standards.
Nike has made the Flywire technology available commercially with the recent launch of its Flywire series of running shoes in the U.S. The company plans to release the track shoes to consumers later in October. Running-shoe technology is coming a long way these days--have a look at these biodegradable shoes by Brooks.
(Via Crave Asia)
Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.
Brooks' Trance 8 men's running shoes might be silver, blue, black, and gray, but they're actually quite green. The shoes feature Brooks' new BioMoGo foam midsole, which contains a natural additive that encourages anaerobic microbes to break the shoe down more easily once it hits the landfill.
The footwear company is debuting BioMoGo in the $140 Trance 8 this month, with plans to extend the technology to all Brooks performance running shoes by the end of 2009.
Brooks' Trace 8 is made to biodegrade more readily in active landfills.
(Credit: Brooks)Knowing how crucial sturdy shoes are to any runner, Brooks is making a point of stressing that shoes with BioMoGo midsoles won't just spontaneously fall apart in your closet or while you're taking a jog around the local track.
That's because the material enhances a type of biodegradation that requires the simultaneous occurrence of three environmental conditions: the absence of oxygen, the presence of many microbes, and the existence of moisture.
"You will not find these three environmental conditions in places where shoes are worn or stored," the company explains. "Biodegradation can only happen once the shoe has been thrown away and buried deep in an active enclosed landfill."
Brooks says that while traditional ethylene vinyl acetate midsoles can last up to 1,000 years in an enclosed landfill, tests have shown that BioMoGo can biodegrade in roughly 20 years when placed in the same environment. By using BioMoGo in its shoes, Brooks predicts it will save nearly 30 million pounds of landfill waste over a 20-year period.
The company says it deliberately decided not to patent its technology, but instead to share it with other footwear companies as part of its overall green initiative. Thanks to Uncrate for running this one by us.
Shoe news, it turns out, begets more shoe news. After posting a blog on the Goodie 2 Shoes adjustable-heeled shoes earlier Monday, I got word of a product called the SoleMates High Heeler.
It's a discreet little attachment that promises to prevent most stiletto and kitten heels from sinking into the grass or falling in sidewalk cracks.
As anyone who's been there knows, getting your heels stuck in grass, uneven pavement, brick walk crevices, or sewer grates can detract from your stylish strut. Well aware of that peril, heel wearers Rebecca Brown and Monica Murphy, business school classmates at Columbia and colleagues at Goldman Sachs, conceived of the gadget to put other fashionistas on more solid ground.
The flexible attachment hooks onto the base of the heel, increasing the surface area and reducing the pressure on this often narrow segment of shoe. On its way to retailers, SoleMates currently sells the High Heeler for $19.95 online in clear. A black version is in the works.
(Credit:
ShoeMates High Heeler)
(Credit:
ShoeMates High Heeler)
Goodie 2 Shoes can go from 3 1/2 inches to 1 1/2 inches in height.
(Credit: Yanko Design)You know how women commuters sometimes trade their heels for "sensible shoes" on their way to and from work? Utilitarian, to be sure, but not always the best look, especially when said sensible shoes are paired with a skirt and the likes of thick white socks.
Yanko Design informs us that designer Natalie Cosette Thorne has come up with a possible solution: "Goodie 2 Shoes"--or G2S for the cool kids. The adjustable-heel footwear can go from 3 1/2 inches to 1 1/2 inches via a peg system secured by strong magnets and a hidden hinge. What's more, the shoe's design can be customized using plastic snap-on parts with different shapes, colors, and styles.
Some commenters on Yanko's board loved the concept, but didn't much like the industrial-looking design, calling the shoes "awful" or "too geekyish--only a computer geek or tomboy would wear something like this."
The geeky aesthetic, of course, could be a selling point for some. "Being a geekette, strangely enough, I actually like that design," one person wrote. It "would fit well with my computer(s)."
What do you think? Will we ever see you about town sporting Goodie 2 Shoes? From what we can tell, the kicks are still in the concept stage, so you still have some time to think about it.
