Utility Mashup
My utility idea will incorporate a Smartphone and a shoe (particularly the sole). This is aimed to revolutionize the security of people in unfamiliar areas.
Insight:
A new design of shoes with simple memory chips affixed in the soles to send real-time signals to the wearer’s Smartphone when walking in the streets. The target type of shoes for this technology would be casual shoes which are mostly worn by people when they out and about in the streets or on holiday. I portend to make the best of the shoes we wear when moving about. This will work in conjunction with the intelligent smart phones that are commonplace nowadays.
All that has to be done is add a little technological touch to the shoes by including interactive memory chips in the soles (RedOrbit, 2004). The chips will have radar capabilities to sense acclaimed dangerous spots with the help of the Google maps function in the smart phones.
How the utility will work:
All a traveler would need to do before setting out on the trip is to gauge the Smartphone to the neighborhood he or she aims to visit. The Smartphone will communicate the information about the area with memory chip in the soles of the pair of shoes used.
Whenever the person is approaching a known bad area, the application in the shoe soles will sense that immediately and communicate the signal back to the user’s smart phone.
Then the Smartphone will be able to alert the owner through a sound of an alarm. The alert alarm could be something close to the tension sound effects we hear in the movies.
Target market
This utility is targeted at occasional travelers, those who live in dangerous neighborhood and those vulnerable to criminal attacks in streets such as young women and children. The frequent travelers would wear the shoes when visiting new unfamiliar places, while young women and children would wear them when they unaccompanied or at night.
Reasons it hasn’t been done
1. The smartphone phenomenon is still a new thing and has been fully exploited especially in terms interconnecting with other accessories for provision individualized security.
2. The possibility to use shoes in other additional functionalities besides walking, sports, and fashion has been assumed by shoe designers. It is only recently that “intelligent shoes” have started featuring.
3. The penetration of smartphones has remained low especially for low-end consumers who may afford shoes. As such, it is because of fear for limited market.
Reasons why it should exist
Smartphone’s have come with added capabilities and thus can help in keeping us safe in streets and unfamiliar places.
Almost everyone moves around in shoes; there can be an added functionality of shoes besides protecting our feet when walking (RedOrbit, 2004).
There is need for individualized security. We should be able to watch our backs with the technology we have at our disposal.
Work Cited
RedOrbit. Adidas Creates Computerized ‘Smart Shoe’. 2004. April 13, 2012 <http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/56252/adidas_creates_computerized_smart_shoe/>
