' Smart ' shoes !

First your phones, then eyewear and now shoes, technology just doesn’t seem to stop at anything; hope to have smart humans by the end of the era too! All technology seems to be doing for humans is increase comfort in everything they do and increase the ‘lazy’ population. But wait, they don’t only bring laziness with them, there’s a surprise for all the ladies out there.

How can a shoe be smart?

There are basically three prototypes to this technology:

•  This prototype is especially for the ladies, so pay attention! Heels that ‘change colour with the click of a Smartphone app’. Yes, they do exist and it is hard to believe so, but that’s the truth! Meaning, you can have all colours of heels to match all your outfits and no worrying about your budget anymore. Just 1 pair of heels to solve it all.

•        Shoes that sync with your Smartphone and the level of cushioning can be controlled in the shoe. What this means is that the sole of the shoe contains fluid that can be controlled to give a cushioning effect wherever the fluid is in more concentration.

•       When the shoe syncs with your Smartphone it uses Google maps to vibrate and tell when and where to turn to reach their respective destinations. This feature is of particular interest to the visually impaired population, who earlier used to walk straight with the help of canes but did not know where to turn. The potential of these shoes for the sighted as well is huge; while moving people can add destinations and the buzzing in their shoes will let them know when to turn. It can also help in tracking calories and distances walked adding another attribute to the product.

Flying TVs: ‘Flixels’

As fancy as they sound, they’re not the name of another Disney movie! Disney is planning to take its technology to an entirely new level, because stationary pixels are just so old school! Disney plans on giving life to its pixels, and no we’re not talking about black magic either. So what is Disney doing? Let’s take a look…

Pixels with personality

Disney came up with display swarms called Pixelbots in an attempt to re-enact the story of the universe. These are two wheeled robots that can make robotic images on table tops or whiteboards (using magnetic wheels). You can see the Pixelbots move into position to create drawings by merely sketching on an iPad, its like having poppets (yes, the ones in witchcraft!). These ‘Pixels with personality’ provide a whole new way of looking at cartoons and animations.

These Pixelbots can be controlled in the following ways:

Lets fly away!

This is a table turner! Disney is bringing to life the scene from one of it’s animated movies, ‘Tangled’, where thousands of lanterns float in the night sky

How? Well here’s the answer..
Disney is embracing high-tech displays, to expand the entertainment it offers at its theme parks worldwide, with the help of flying drones. It filed new patents to expand this concept by having flying helicopter drones support floating puppets and projection screens in mid-air. Each drone will carry a miniature lighting system that is controlled remotely; when a multitude of these drones are synchronised in the air to fly together, will form an aerial light display consisting of “floating pixels”. For example:

1.     Can be used to imitate fireworks instead of using actual fireworks,

2.      Display cartoons in the night sky without any screens, etc.

General applications:

Its not only Disney that can make use of these flixels, the entertainment industry can make use of these too:

•       Ariel displays: an amusement park may have a lagoon or other open space over which it is desired to present a display to entertain visitors
•       Massively large aerial displays may be presented at sport stadiums or other venues to celebrate holidays such as New Year's Day throughout the world and Diwali throughout India (Also reducing pollution to a great extent).
•       Flying TVs: who knows, these might lead to the invention of flying TVs! Increasing portability of modern systems and reducing the numbers at home. But it’s a long way into developing that kind of technology, reducing costs and weight of flying bots with the equipment needed for TV displays.

All we can do is wait and watch till Disney incorporates these fascinating changes into its theme parks, thanks to technology!