'Smart' Shoe Automatically Adjusts to Your Feet

 

 
 
'Smart' Shoe Automatically Adjusts to Your Feet
 
Adidas is calling it the "Model One," a running shoe the German sporting-goods
maker says automatically adjusts to the demands of the wearer. One of its
inventors is Christian Dibenedetto of Adidas's North American headquarters in
Portland, Oregon.
 
"What the shoe does is basically it can adapt to the individual that's wearing it, and
it can give them the appropriate cushioning all the time."
 
A magnet and a sensor in the shoe's heel make thousands of readings per second,
signaling a tiny electric motor to change the cushioning as needed.
 
"The magnet sits underneath so it'll be located in that cavity and then as this
compresses, we can measure the distance between that sensor and the magnet.
That information passes up into our micro-controller which is the brain of the unit,
and that micro-controller understands the right amount of cushioning and can make
decisions."
 
The goal is to make the shoe adjust to changing road and track conditions and to
the runner's particular style.