Wearable technology has been deemed the next frontier in technological advancement. Apple, Samsung and a slew of other competitors are all anxious to prove that they have the best gear on the market. Well, now there is an Indian company that is looking to shake the competition up. Ducere Technologies Pvt. has just come out with the very first smart shoe.
Titled “Lechal,” the shoe uses bluetooth technology to connect with other smart devices, and the startup plans to release the shoe in September for $100. The shoe works by syncing with its custom app as well as Google’s map app to guide wearers to their selected destination. Wearers are guided by vibrations in either the left or right shoe to indicate the direction they should be heading in.
Ducere was started by two Indian engineers who received secondary education in the U.S., and has now grown to 50 employees. When speaking to The Wall Street Journal, co-founder and chief executive officer Krispian Lawrence explained, “The shoes are a natural extension of the human body. You will leave your house without your watch or wristband, but you will never leave your house without your shoes.”
He went further to explain that the shoes could be a great help to those with poor or no eye sight. Lawrence argued that a cane might be able to alert someone to an immediate obstacle in from on them, but it cannot tell its user whether or not he or she is heading in the right direction. In addition, the shoes can track distance traveled as well as calories burned. Twenty-four Indian and international patents have already been filed on the behalf of the company.
