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Interactive footwear with haptic feedback

Ducere Technologies has devised the world’s very first interactive footwear which is controlled entirely by haptic feedback.

Haptic technology, or haptics, is a tactile feedback technology which leverages the senses of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user. The mechanical stimuli are used to assist and control virtual objects and enable remote control of machines and devices. Haptic devices typically include tactile sensors which gauge the force applied by the users on the same.

The Hyderabad-based company is floated by Krispian Lawrence from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and Anirudh Sharma from MIT Cambridge. The product range called Lechal (pronounced as Ley-chal which literally means “take me along” in Hindi) released 2 products – an insole which slips into any footwear allows technology to be installed inside shoes and a shoe with the same technology built-in. The device which syncs up with a smartphone uses vibrations to provide walking instructions, as against voice instructions. It can also track and save paths traversed, count the steps taken, mark and tag locations and measure calories expended.

Lechal initially started as a project for a noble social cause of creating an aid for the visually impaired. For each of the pair sold commercially, the company plans to subsidize a pair for the visually challenged.

prashant.vadgaonkar@hotmail.com

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