27 yr old designs footwear to tell if you are lost
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 11 January 2010, 15:08 IST   |    31 Comments
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27 yr old designs footwear to tell if you are lost
Bangalore: Prayas Abhinav, a 27-year-old geek from Bangalore, designed sandals named as 'Bhatka Bhatka'. The LEDs and the vibrator fitted in the sandals will guide a person every step of the way, reports Bangalore Mirror. Abhinav said, "I wanted to make whimsical products that give you an element of fun and of course, which are not useful." The sandals are fitted with an Arduino microcontroller board with a program burnt on it and driven by software written in Java. The locations in the city are characterized. The LEDs are programmed to blink in certain patterns to lead the way. Abhinav said, "When you are in a known place, a red light blinks; when in a known neighborhood, a blue light blinks. When it turns green you know for sure that you are in an unknown place." Here's how the vibrator in the footwear works. "When you start moving towards a known place again, it vibrates in such a manner that is forces you to change your direction and move towards a place you have not discovered. The vibration is so strong that you may feel that someone is hitting your leg with a hammer," added Abhinav. After preparing the algorithms, Abhinav gave them to software engineers to design the technology. These sandals were put together in a month's time. They look like similar to normal sandals and are light weight. The sandals are rechargeable and can last for eight hours at a time. The price of these shoes is not fixed. But the mode of payment for those who cannot afford them is unique. Abhinav said, "You can pay a minimum amount through cash and the rest you can pay through kind. You can either offer dinner or coffee to me or give away old books also if you wish." This footwear will be on display at the Geetanjali Dang exhibition in Delhi in about a month's time. Abhinav is also planning to bring out shoes that can lead you to all the silent places in the city. He formed a brand for these shoes known as the Talk Company. This footwear will come with noise sensors. A map on the server will guide people wearing the footwear to silent places. If you are in known place, the LED on the sandals blinks red; when in a known neighborhood, a blue light blinks. When it turns green you know for sure that you are in an unknown place.

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