You can do anything you want but don’t step on my Bluetooth shoes.
That’s what Indian startup Ducere Technologies has developed — the first smart shoe.
The smart shoes go for $100 a pair, and sync up — or pair — with the Google Maps smartphone app and vibrate to tell users when and where to turn to reach their destination.
Need to turn right? You will feel the buzz on the right foot.
Ducere was started in 2011 by two Indian engineers who had studied and worked in the US, according to WSJ.com, and has grown to 50 employees in the city of Secunderabad.
“The shoes are a natural extension of the human body,” Krispian Lawrence, 30, co-founder and chief executive officer of the company, told WSJ. “You will leave your house without your watch or wristband, but you will never leave your house without your shoes.”
Ducere had initially developed the shoes — with the name Lechal, which in Hindi means “Take me along” — to help the blind who rely on walking canes.
While the cane can help the visually impaired detect obstacles, it cannot tell them which way to face or when to turn. “That’s where we come in and fill the void,” Lawrence said.
There are around 285 million visually impaired people in the world, according to the World Health Organization, and most of them are in India.
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