New Haptic Wearable Device. Lechal is a haptic footwear and insoles which was driven to help the visually-impaired navigate their world better. In Hindi, Lechal means take me there. The footwear includes sensors, small actuators and electronic inside the soles that allows it to connect with smartphone via Bluetooth. The user interfaces with an application equipped with the local map on the phone via voice commands. http://www.store.lechal.com
As someone who lives in a city, I often find myself watching people
driving cars and people riding bikes salute each other, and not in a
good way. Apparently, the “Share the Road” concept needs more work.
And yet, the number of urban cyclists keeps growing, including here
in Washington D.C., where just last week two new bike lanes opened up
in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, aka “America’s Main Street.” With
more Millennials gravitating toward city living and away from owning cars, the trend is only going to pick up speed.
But this raises some questions: What makes the ideal urban
bike? Yes, it should be solid and easy to maneuver, but what else should
it be able to do? How can a bike be re-imagined to make riding around
on city streets safer and less daunting for newbie urban bikers.
That’s pretty much the challenge taken on by design teams in five
different cities—San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle and
Portland—competing in something known as the Oregon Manifest Bike Design Project. The
idea is to create a city-concept bike, but one that’s all about urban
utility and is street-practical—so practical that Fuji Bikes has agreed
to manufacture the winning model, as decided by online voters.
Catching a buzz
So what did the designers come up with?
For starters, smart handlebars. The team in Portland, Oregon, created a bike they named Solid,
and it includes handlebars that, in response to an app on the rider’s
smartphone, give him or her directions by buzzing. If a rider is
supposed to turn right, that side of the handlebars starts buzzing. The
buzz gets more insistent as they get closer to the turn. If they go past
it, both sides of the handlebar vibrate.
The Chicago design team followed a similar tack with its model, named the Blackline after one of the city’s elevated train lines. It uses smart handlebars designed by Helios Bars,
an outfit that raised more than $120,000 on Kickstarter last year. Your
smartphone is linked to the bike through Bluetooth and, once you input
your destination, the handlebars take over. But instead of buzzing when
you need to turn, colored LED lights at each end of the handlebar start
blinking, letting you know which way to go—not to mention giving
drivers around you a better idea of where you’re headed.
The handlebars can also be set to speedometer mode, which means the
lights change color in response to how fast you’re moving. And when you
get to where you’re going, but want to make sure you don’t forget where
you parked, you can shoot the bike a text and it responds by sending a
Google map to your phone, pinpointing the location.
The Seattle team—they named their bike Denny—took
the handlebar in a different direction. It can’t talk to a phone, but
it can detach and be converted into a U-shaped bike lock.
Coffee on board
Of course, if a bike is going to be your main mode of transit, it
better be able to carry stuff—a bag of groceries, coffee for you and
your office mates. The New York designers took on that challenge by
building an ingenious storage system in their model, which they dubbed Merge.
It actually fits inside the bike’s frame, but when you need to haul
something, you just pull a rear light and a spring-loaded tray pops into
place behind the seat. Should you need a bungee cord, it has that, too,
hidden inside another of the bike’s tubes.
The San Francisco team, meanwhile, has taken more of a plug-and-play approach. Their model, called Evo,
comes with all kinds of attachments—storage racks, baskets, baby
carriers—that easily connect to the front and back of the bike. When
you’re done hauling, you just de-accessorize.
There are plenty of other clever features in the five bikes in the
competition: A phone-charging port powered by the front wheel (Portland,
New York); an onboard computer that automatically shifts gears
(Seattle); and sensor-driven lights that get brighter or dimmer based on
natural conditions (Portland, Seattle).
To get a look at where urban bikes are headed, check out all the models on the Bike Design Project website. You have until Sunday at noon (PST) to vote for your favorite.
Remember when the coolest thing you could do with a bike was flap a balloon in the spokes?
Feet, don’t fail me now
But why stop with bikes? A company in India has developed a shoe
insole that buzzes to let you know which way to turn on whatever route
you’ve chosen. The device, called the Lechal—meaning
“take me along” in Hindi—connects to an app that syncs up with Google
Maps, allowing the wearer to take in the view instead of burying his
head in a map or hanging on Siri’s every word.
The insole, which can fit into almost any shoe you own, can also count steps and tally calories burned.
It was originally devised with the visually-impaired in mind, but
the Indian company that created the Lechal, Ducere Technologies, now
thinks it could have broader appeal. It’s expected to go on the
market next month at a cost somewhere between $69.99
Hyderabad-based startup has developed footwear that tracks and navigates with touch sensors.
Hyderabad:Whenever we think about the wearable market space the first thing that comes to our mind is the fitness tracker either on our hand or on our smartphone. However, one Hyderabad-based company is trying its hands or do we say legs in the wearable and fitness market space.Lechalfounded by Krispian Lawrence has been in existence since 2011 and started commercial sales of its product since the last one-and-a-half year.
The inception of the idea was to build footwear to help the visually impaired with the navigation, however Lawrence later realised that it could be used by anyone. The footwear works on a simple technology called Haptic which recreates the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user.
The user just has to download the Lechal app, set a destination and wear the footwear. The sensors in the insoles, shoes or even the buckle will guide the user through vibrations. “For example if the user needs to take right, then the right shoe will vibrate and so on,” Lawrence told Telangana Today.
Krispian Lawrence.
Now, while this is a good product for the visually impaired, the company soon realised that this could be used by anyone and everyone as most of the tracking devices now either need users to be glued to their phone or listen to the directions. With Lechal, however, it aids the user through vibration. Thus began the prototyping and testing of the product and after three years of intense research, the company was able to launch its flagship product in India in 2016.
“We have shipped our product to over 70 countries and have sold more than 25,000 units of our footwear in the last one year itself. We are confident the same sales run going ahead as well,” the true blue Hyderabadi informs.
Other than just providing directions, the footwear also tracks the number of steps taken and keeps a track of the user’s fitness. And it can also be used by the family to keep track of their loved ones. Other than its own website, the product is available on Amazon and in Croma stores.
Manufacturing
While startups in India and in Hyderabad are mostly about software and apps, Lechal is one of the few product-based startups in the city. What sets it apart from many startups is the ability to manufacture everything in-house. “Starting from our hardware to software to product design to product engineering and manufacturing everything is done in-house. And we have shipped all the products from here itself,” Lawrence informs.
One of the most interesting factor about the manufacturing is that 70 per cent of its workforce in the unit are differently abled. It has a total of 120 people employees. While the major raw materials are sourced from 12 different countries, according to the specifications mentioned by the company, yet all the innovations happen here in Hyderabad.
Expansion and Investment
Going ahead, the startup – that has diversified into other segments – plans to enter into partnerships with reputed brands for not only its footwear product but also the other products. Without specifying details about the future products, Lawrence informed that they are in talks with companies in travel and hospitality space to provide them with connected devices. “In addition, we are also looking at partnering with footwear brands to co-brand with them to sell our product,” he said.
The company has so far invested $3.5 million out of which about $2.5 million was bootstrapped. Going ahead, it plans to raise more funds as it seeks more partnerships and branding.
Technology is beautiful, especially when it comes to the aid of the
differently abled. For instance, with LeChal, visually impaired people
can travel anywhere without guidance from others. LeChal is basically a
smart shoe that harnesses the visually challenged’s heightened senses of
touch. It enables them to travel by themselves with the help of
vibrational patterns on their feet. This haptic-driven smart shoe has
been produced by Secunderabad-based Ducere Technologies.
How a thought took shape
The LeChal packageBack
in 2012, Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharma, two tinkerers with the
common objective to help the visually challenged, came up with the idea
of a smart shoe. The fact that the visually challenged are gifted with
heightened senses of touch and hearing became their basis for designing
something that could intuitively guide the user through gentle vibratory
feedback by connecting to the directions set on a map. The thought
process started in May 2012. In July of the same year, Sharma went ahead
for further education, while Lawrence drove the project. The product
was ready in 2016 and called ‘LeChal.’
“LeChal
as a concept came about as a solution to allowing one’s senses to be
utilised in the most efficient way. The thought led to identifying how
to help the visually impaired to navigate in a way that their sense of
touch (walking stick) or their sense of hearing (audio guidance) are not
compromised,” explains Lawrence. The first shipment of the product was
made in July 2016. The four years in between were utilised for
development, prototyping and upgradations to bring out what LeChal is
today.
Against all odds
Being a hardware product start-up,
Ducere Technologies faced challenges different from software developers
and service providers, in addition to the pressure of venturing into an
unexplored field. The hardware ecosystem is not conducive for startups
in India. So, putting together a team of people with compatible talent
and ready to work for a startup project took much effort. Adding to the
troubles was limited funding. The project was bootstrapped until it
received angel funds. Despite all these hardships, the company has grown
to become 120-employee strong today and drives sales through its own
website as well as online and offline retail partners.
Team LeChal
How LeChal works
Before
getting into the basics of LeChal, let’s first explain in simple words
how haptic technologies work. Haptic technologies take data from a
source and use tactile (touch-based) sensors to respond to it in the
form of vibrations or touch-based sensations on the user. LeChal follows
this basic principle to work.
LeChal has three iterations: the
complete shoe form, a pair of insoles with a pair of sensor pods, and
only the pods. The pods contain the main haptic sensors. These can
either be buckled to the existing shoe-laces of the user or inserted
into the insoles provided by LeChal that replace the existing insoles of
the user’s shoes. The sensors connect to the user’s smartphone via
Bluetooth. Users need to download the LeChal mobile application on their
smartphone or tablet. The application provides a GPS (map) interface to
set the desired destination via touchscreen or even via voice command,
powered by the LeChal assist service. It connects to the
Bluetooth-linked pods and relays data to generate haptic sensations.
The
pods feed the navigation data in real time as the user starts
travelling, and send signals in the form of various vibratory patterns
to indicate directions of travel. For example, gentle vibrations on the
left leg imply left turn and vibrations on the right leg imply right
turn. Vibration patterns can be customised as per the convenience of the
user.
Most importantly, maps can be downloaded and saved to the
phone or tablet before use and the connection is Bluetooth driven (as
mentioned before), so there is no problem of poor network connectivity
or data unavailability.
How LeChal works
Expanding horizons
Initially
aimed for the visually challenged, LeChal is finding other consumers as
well. Lawrence states, “At this point, along with the visually
challenged, our product has proven to be appealing to people who travel a
lot. Fitness enthusiasts also show a keen interest in the product
because of the extremely accurate measurement of fitness metrics. Last
but not the least, we have managed to captivate the imagination of
technophiles as well.”
The product has caught the eyes of
enterprises also, collaborating with brands like Netherlands-based Hi
Tec., and won acclaims and awards at global level. Presently, there are
24 patents on trademark applications for the product. Plans are afoot to
improve LeChal in terms of comfort of use, features and functionality.
Where to find it
Priced
at ₹ 6999, LeChal can be purchased from the company’s official website.
It is also available on e-commerce stores like Amazon and retail
stations like Croma. According to the company, over 10,000 units have
been sold till now. So, take a break from constantly looking at your
phone’s screen to know which way to go. After all, products like LeChal
are eyes to your feet.
Indian start-up Lechal is now selling fitness insoles and buckles for footwear that track actual foot movement
Lechal smart insoles and buckles
Rs6,999
Tracking
the number of steps walked in a day and calculating the calories burnt
in the process has become the favourite pastime of many a fitness
enthusiast. There are many fitness bands that help track such activity,
and remain paired with your smartphone. But Indian start-up Lechal is
now selling fitness insoles and buckles for footwear that may
provide a more accurate way of tracking movement because it actually
only detects foot movement and not hand movement (fitness bands on
wrists approximate distance walked through motion-detection tech and
various sensors).
This rather unique wearable works with any
footwear and pairs with your smartphone—and apart from fitness tracking,
it can also assist in navigation. Globally, a few brands make smart
soles for footwear, but we are yet to come across a comparable rival
product in India.
What you get is a pair of insoles for your
shoes, and buckles that can be laced up with your footwear—you can use
either with any footwear, or deploy each on different pairs of shoes.The
insoles can be cut to fit your shoe.
The critical part of
the entire package are the two pods, which are fitted with sensors that
track movement and location. These pods have rechargeable batteries (a
dock is provided for charging) and pair with the Lechal app (free for
Android and iOS) on your phone. The app also lets you configure each of
these pods for the leg it’ll be worn on and the shoe type.
The
insoles have a docking mechanism in which you can fit the pods—this is
directly under the foot arch. You won’t even realize the pods are there.
You’ll need to be careful, however, about the sports shoe you use them
in. For they do add some bulk under your foot, pushing the foot itself
more towards the top of the shoe. If you are wearing one of the
newer-gen sock-like sports shoes (such as the Nike Free 3.0 Flyknit),
the soles might not fit well. But if it’s the more conventional designs
(such as the Nike Air Zoom series), they do. Alternatively, you can
install the buckles with the shoelaces, and dock the pods on those—this
works beautifully with almost any shoe.
The biggest advantage of
these wearables is that the pods track actual foot movement, unlike
fitness bands which sometimes also mistake random hand gestures for
walking. Through the app, you can start workouts and set targets—the
pods vibrate once you achieve the goal.
Battery life is a strong
point (the pods last about 12 days on a single charge). Navigation is
quite uniquely handled too. Just punch in the location you’re heading
for in the app and keep the phone in your pocket—the pods will vibrate
on the right or left foot, to indicate the direction you need to take.
While
these unique wearables don’t come cheap, they do have two distinct
advantages—they are accurate in tracking movement, and they remain out
of the way. The navigation capabilities are a rather nice addition.
Great ideas are all around you, and more often than not, your best
designs will be born out of necessity. A drive to provide a solution to a
problem that exists in your society. For Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh
Sharm, they wanted to create smart shoes that would be an improvement on
walking and navigation aids for the visually impaired. Through Ducere
Technologies, a start-up they founded in 2011, they launched Lechal
(pronounced lay-ch-al, which is “take me there” in Hindi). It’s a haptic
footwear device, which uses vibrations at your feet to allow users to
navigate directions. Their primary target is the visually impaired,
which WHO
(World Health Organisation) estimates to be approximately 285 million
globally and the majority mostly being in India. Nevertheless, they also
wanted to make an inclusive device that serves the community at large.
It took five years, 15 prototypes, a core team of over a 100, and
countless hours of hard work sprinkled with a few eureka moments, to
make the Lechal. And this is how they made an all-inclusive product: [Image: Ducere Technologies / Lechal]Primary Focus
The Indian wearable tech start-up began at reviewing the options
available. The white cane, which is the most common, tends to fall short
when it comes to orientation, direction and navigation.
On the other hand, most assistive devices on the market use audio as
their form of feedback. Seeing as the visually challenged rely heavily
on their hearing, constant audio feedback may be a distraction to how
they acquaint themselves with their surrounding environment. For a more
unobtrusive approach, the duo decided to turn to touch; another sense
that is highly developed due to their impairment.
Through an interactive, haptic based navigational system,
the user can be invisibly but intuitively guided to their destination
through gentle vibrations in their shoes.
Through an interactive, haptic based navigational system,
the user can be invisibly but intuitively guided to their destination
through gentle vibrations in their shoes. The user would set the destination
on their phone, and using the phone’s GPS, it calculates the location
data to convey directions. Once the shoes are synched to the Lechal app
via Bluetooth, haptics are initiated to show the user the way. If the
wearer needs to turn left, the left foot would sense vibrations while a
right turn would get the right shoe buzzing. [Image: Ducere Technologies / Lechal]What is in a Lechal Pack?
Lechal comes as black or red shoes that retail at $100-$150. But with
the inclusivity element in mind, it also comes as an insole and buckles
that you can fit into most closed shoes. The insoles have a docking
mechanism that fits pods directly under the foot arch.
Alternatively, you can dock the pods on the buckles that attach to the
laces; opening up the variety of shoes this can work with. It’s these
two pods that track movement and location, as well as, pair with the
Lechal app. Through the app, you can configure each pod for the shape
type and the leg it’ll be worn on.
The pods also work on offline and outdoor navigation modes, allowing
the user to move around without data connectivity. It comes with a
rechargeable battery that slide into the very back of the insole or
behind the shoe’s heel. The battery lasts 15 days and is referred to as
the “world’s first interactive charger”
because with a snap of your fingers, it audibly communicates the
battery’s charge level. And if the insole is too big for your shoe size,
it can easily be trimmed along the marked size guidelines.
Wearable Tech Benefits
Lechal wants you to look up. To really take in the world around you
with all your senses, instead of looking at your phone all day. So it’s
intentionally designed to be sleek, minimalistic and comfortable to
seamlessly blend into your lifestyle. Thus, In addition to directions,
Lechal works for users who desire fitness metrics. It keeps track of
calories burnt, steps taken, and distance covered. However, Lechal wants
to give its users a more holistic workout by providing accurate
analytics. Unlike other fitness bands that monitor hand movement and
thus approximate distance covered via motion-detection, Lechal only detects foot movement. So, it won’t pick up the random hand gestures as part of your fitness data.
Lechal also dares users to strive for more. Therefore fitness
enthusiasts can set goals, such as calories or distance oriented goals,
and the pods will vibrate once you’ve hit the goal. The benefit of
keeping a log of all your fitness activities and goal wish list, is it
can even suggest routes based on your fitness metrics
to help you achieve your fitness objectives. Because they want it to be
a hands-free experience, there’s the option of setting mini-milestone
goals throughout you routine that will vibrate once you’ve achieved one.
And if you don’t want to take your phone on your next run, you can
switch on the untethered mode, which will store the fitness data in your
pods until you get back into proximity with your phone. But if you
can’t live without your smartphone you can program your footwear to alert you if you’re leaving the house without it.
Got wanderlust in your bones? This piece of tech is perfect for you.
Travellers can spend more time taking in all the new scenery and leave
the navigation to their feet. Before setting out, there’s the option of
marking places of interest, such as restaurants, ATMs and historical
landmarks, on your phone. It’s also helpful to mark multiple stops you’d
like to make before your final destination using Lechal’s waypoint
reminders. This way, it can send reminders or notifications when you’re
close or at these specific vicinities. Going to a place that isn’t
Wi-Fi complaint, save your destinations pre-travel and you’ll be able to
access them via the offline mode.
And for the real explorers out there, you can discover the road less
travelled and record the trail. If you’ve ever had to use Google maps
outside of the urban areas, you know how important a feature like this
can be. It essentially gives the user the power to create their own
travel guide that they can use to find their way back to camp and store
for future use. Sharing is caring, and this app enables users to share
their locations with other users. So if you’re travelling in a big group
you can keep track of all your members. This feature may be of
particular interest to parents and families when they’re out and about
with their children. [Image: Ducere Technologies / Lechal]
For most, $150 can be a steep order. Ducere Technologies acknowledges
this and explains that higher sales of Lechal footwear would considerably lower their cost.
This is because they have already dedicated a portion of the sale
proceeds to subsidizing pairs for the visually challenged. They’re also
thinking about the future of the Lechal app for all consumers. They’re
working on a software development kit (SDK) that will make their custom software a platform for other developers to create apps for their product. Pod placement [Image: Ducere Technologies / Lechal]
That said, Lechal is an impressive addition to the footwear industry.
It’s an inclusive design that puts a lot of thought into solving
problems and responding to the needs of today’s society. By aiming to be
a natural extension of the user, each person can navigate ‘hands-free,
hassle-free and with their heads up’! It’s a perfect example of
designing with purpose.
Great ideas are all around you, and more often than not, your best designs will be born out of necessity. A drive to provide a solution to a problem that exists in your society. For Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharm, they wanted to create smart shoes that would be an improvement on walking and navigation aids for the visually impaired. Through Ducere Technologies, a start-up they founded in 2011, they launched Lechal (pronounced lay-ch-al, which is “take me there” in Hindi). It’s a haptic footwear device, which uses vibrations at your feet to allow users to navigate directions. Their primary target is the visually impaired, which WHO (World Health Organisation) estimates to be approximately 285 million globally and the majority mostly being in India. Nevertheless, they also wanted to make an inclusive device that serves the community at large. It took five years, 15 prototypes, a core team of over a 100, and countless hours of hard work sprinkled with a few eureka moments, to make the Lechal. And this is how they made an all-inclusive product: [Image: Ducere Technologies / Lechal]Primary Focus
The Indian wearable tech start-up began at reviewing the options available. The white cane, which is the most common, tends to fall short when it comes to orientation, direction and navigation. On the other hand, most assistive devices on the market use audio as their form of feedback. Seeing as the visually challenged rely heavily on their hearing, constant audio feedback may be a distraction to how they acquaint themselves with their surrounding environment. For a more unobtrusive approach, the duo decided to turn to touch; another sense that is highly developed due to their impairment.
Through an interactive, haptic based navigational system,
the user can be invisibly but intuitively guided to their destination
through gentle vibrations in their shoes.
Through an interactive, haptic based navigational system, the user can be invisibly but intuitively guided to their destination through gentle vibrations in their shoes. The user would set the destination on their phone, and using the phone’s GPS, it calculates the location data to convey directions. Once the shoes are synched to the Lechal app via Bluetooth, haptics are initiated to show the user the way. If the wearer needs to turn left, the left foot would sense vibrations while a right turn would get the right shoe buzzing. [Image: Ducere Technologies / Lechal]What is in a Lechal Pack?
Lechal comes as black or red shoes that retail at $100-$150. But with the inclusivity element in mind, it also comes as an insole and buckles that you can fit into most closed shoes. The insoles have a docking mechanism that fits pods directly under the foot arch. Alternatively, you can dock the pods on the buckles that attach to the laces; opening up the variety of shoes this can work with. It’s these two pods that track movement and location, as well as, pair with the Lechal app. Through the app, you can configure each pod for the shape type and the leg it’ll be worn on.
The pods also work on offline and outdoor navigation modes, allowing the user to move around without data connectivity. It comes with a rechargeable battery that slide into the very back of the insole or behind the shoe’s heel. The battery lasts 15 days and is referred to as the “world’s first interactive charger” because with a snap of your fingers, it audibly communicates the battery’s charge level. And if the insole is too big for your shoe size, it can easily be trimmed along the marked size guidelines.
Wearable Tech Benefits
Lechal wants you to look up. To really take in the world around you with all your senses, instead of looking at your phone all day. So it’s intentionally designed to be sleek, minimalistic and comfortable to seamlessly blend into your lifestyle. Thus, In addition to directions, Lechal works for users who desire fitness metrics. It keeps track of calories burnt, steps taken, and distance covered. However, Lechal wants to give its users a more holistic workout by providing accurate analytics. Unlike other fitness bands that monitor hand movement and thus approximate distance covered via motion-detection, Lechal only detects foot movement. So, it won’t pick up the random hand gestures as part of your fitness data.
Lechal also dares users to strive for more. Therefore fitness enthusiasts can set goals, such as calories or distance oriented goals, and the pods will vibrate once you’ve hit the goal. The benefit of keeping a log of all your fitness activities and goal wish list, is it can even suggest routes based on your fitness metrics to help you achieve your fitness objectives. Because they want it to be a hands-free experience, there’s the option of setting mini-milestone goals throughout you routine that will vibrate once you’ve achieved one. And if you don’t want to take your phone on your next run, you can switch on the untethered mode, which will store the fitness data in your pods until you get back into proximity with your phone. But if you can’t live without your smartphone you can program your footwear to alert you if you’re leaving the house without it.
Got wanderlust in your bones? This piece of tech is perfect for you. Travellers can spend more time taking in all the new scenery and leave the navigation to their feet. Before setting out, there’s the option of marking places of interest, such as restaurants, ATMs and historical landmarks, on your phone. It’s also helpful to mark multiple stops you’d like to make before your final destination using Lechal’s waypoint reminders. This way, it can send reminders or notifications when you’re close or at these specific vicinities. Going to a place that isn’t Wi-Fi complaint, save your destinations pre-travel and you’ll be able to access them via the offline mode.
And for the real explorers out there, you can discover the road less travelled and record the trail. If you’ve ever had to use Google maps outside of the urban areas, you know how important a feature like this can be. It essentially gives the user the power to create their own travel guide that they can use to find their way back to camp and store for future use. Sharing is caring, and this app enables users to share their locations with other users. So if you’re travelling in a big group you can keep track of all your members. This feature may be of particular interest to parents and families when they’re out and about with their children. [Image: Ducere Technologies / Lechal]
For most, $150 can be a steep order. Ducere Technologies acknowledges this and explains that higher sales of Lechal footwear would considerably lower their cost. This is because they have already dedicated a portion of the sale proceeds to subsidizing pairs for the visually challenged. They’re also thinking about the future of the Lechal app for all consumers. They’re working on a software development kit (SDK) that will make their custom software a platform for other developers to create apps for their product.
That said, Lechal is an impressive addition to the footwear industry. It’s an inclusive design that puts a lot of thought into solving problems and responding to the needs of today’s society. By aiming to be a natural extension of the user, each person can navigate ‘hands-free, hassle-free and with their heads up’! It’s a perfect example of designing with purpose.
If
you came here hoping to find a piece on some new brogues or loafers,
prepare to be disappointed. These are smart shoes, but not in the formal
sense.
Rather than bolting yet more brains to your watch or glasses, Lechal is looking to make your shoe the most intelligent section of your wardrobe.
Hiding
in the sole of this sleek-looking slip-on is an instep of unparalleled
technology. The Lechal's insole communicates with its accompanying smart
phone app via Bluetooth, supplying you with all the fitness metrics
you'd expect of a smart watch: footsteps and distances are recorded,
along with a record of the calories you've burnt while on-foot or bike.
Also
available as an insole to slip into your existing shoes with a battery
pack built into the heel, Lechal are hoping to make a significant
difference to the lives of partially sighted and blind people, helping
them traverse urban centres with new freedom.
Currently available in Amazon.com, you can find out more on the Lechal website.
The tourism industry is moving leaps and bounds to help us see the world in a whole new light, and ideas that were once seen as the material of science-fiction are fast becoming the new normal in 2017. These innovative ideas and projects, which are often now just around the corner, should have you awe-struck about the future of globe-trotting. Here are a number of futuristic trends in travel and tourism that could soon be the present when it comes to booking your next trip.
DNA Analysis
While once upon a time, a trip abroad would be the opportunity to indulge your hedonistic side with continental cuisine and fine wines – many people now see their fitness regime as something that can’t be left behind on the runway.
No one is currently pushing fitness holidays into the future like 38 Degrees North – a fitness company operating from the plush 5-star ME hotel in Ibiza. Their ‘DNA Fitness’ programme uses a mere saliva swab to build a four-day fitness and nutrition programme that is built specifically around your genetic profile.
The hard-work of boxing, pilates, yoga, and lessons in nutrition is all offset by the natural beauty of the Spanish island and the genetic breakdown of your body is sure to leave a lasting legacy on your exercise plans.
VR time travel
The use of virtual and augmented reality as a way of ‘trying before you buy’ when it comes to holiday breaks is something that many companies have been playing around with for a while – but a number of projects are looking to take that a step further.
One of the most ambitious is The Time Machine FET Flagship from the European Commission, which is collecting 2000 years worth of data on European history in an attempt to build a historical simulator that could put the past in front of your eyes using VR technology.
Imagine making your way up the banks of the river Tiber in modern day Rome, before being transported back to a bustling market of the ancient empire, or going back through the construction of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia. This project is tapping into some of Europe’s most impressive archives to make that a real possibility.
Ancestral holidays
Tapping into the past using the technology of the future –DNA testing is an industry becoming vastly more accessible and that some are predicting will be worth over €285 million by 2020.
The potential of tracing your genealogy across the world has already been explored by travel insurance site World Nomads, who partnered with genealogy researchers ancrestry.com to offer an all-paid holiday for one person to explore their genealogy and discover the land of their ancestors with a tailored trip.
The winner from Oregon, USA was sent across the world to South Korea to discover her Mother’s family line and it’s easy to see this genetic approach to picking destinations becoming more than just a one-off in the future.
Future Smart Shoes
New holiday shoes are a must for many looking for a break away, but what if those shoes could act as your tour guide too?
‘Smart shoes’ is a technology initially designed by Indian company Lechal as a way of tracking fitness, mapping out runs and being directed by vibrations instead of having to resort to pulling out your smartphone.
It’s easy to see where this wearable tech solution could step from athletics into tourism – gently guiding city visitors from their hotel to a number of must-see city landmarks across Paris, Tokyo or New York.
Hyperloop Hotels
While these futuristic trends have covered picking your destination and traveling through it, there’s still the hotel experience to consider.
The Radical Innovation Award encourages designers to consider exactly that, with the award as a celebration of big ideas for the hotel industry.
2017’s entries lived up to its name, with the student winner being University of Nevada graduate Brandan Siebrecht, who came up with the idea of the Hyperloop Hotel.
This pressurized tube will connect to 13 cities across America at incredible speeds using Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One network, all while the guest rests up in their luxury suite complete with bedroom, bathroom and living room with flat-screen TV.
The Hyperloop Hotel may sound like a pipe dream but it could be a reality as soon as 2020, according to designers.
The Lechal smart insoles work as a fitness tracker and aids in navigation as well
In The Wizard Of Oz , Dorothy owns a pair of magic slippers that help transport her from Oz to her home in Kansas. Imagine getting hold of a set of magic shoes, that would guide you to your destination without you having to hit Google Maps. The Lechal smart insoles, which translate to “let’s go” in English, have been crafted by an Indian company that does not use magic; instead, it provides navigation via vibrations on your feet.
Lechal insoles use haptic feedback and GPS technology to keep you going in the right direction. It’s the latest addition in the age of wearable technology, where a clutch of devices, from Fitbits to smart T-shirts, sensors that provide you instant information on your workout routine, your calorie intake, heart rate and so forth, seem to have overrun the planet. The Lechal insoles are essentially a pair of rectangular wearable pods that can be attached to the soles of your shoes. It works with an app that you can download on your phone. The app calibrates with the pods and helps you track steps and aids in navigation.
The pods come with a charging docket. The battery life of the pods is almost a week of regular usage—quite impressive in this day of energy-sucking apparatus. The product is an add-on to the device that was initially created to help visually-impaired people navigate city roads.
Once we got rid of our irrational fear of getting electrocuted, we discovered that the pods are rather helpful. The map feature on the app helps you pick a destination and gives you the estimated distance to the place. Once you manage to sync the pods with the app, it will use mild vibrations on your feet to aid you in navigation. So imagine yourself walking down a road. Now you need to turn left—your device will vibrate on the left foot. It takes a little getting used to, but you do, eventually.
In our review device, the navigation was fairly functional and worked well, vibrating slightly, depending on the direction. Unlike a Fitbit, that you glance at every once in a while to check your exercise status, this is much more helpful, as it remains inside your shoe and offers less scope for distractions. However, the syncing process was a tad less satisfactory. Often, the Android version of the app would stop syncing and start searching for the pods. At times, we were forced to bring the phone very close to the soles for syncing.
Another issue we faced was that the insoles seemed too large for our shoes and the pods often got disconnected from the soles. The thickness of the insoles also took some time to get used to. We eventually junked the insoles and attached the pods to the soles in front of the laces.
As far as wearables go, the Lechal insoles are not very expensive and are fairly decent for regular usage, though I could not see much help in navigation, apart from offering help in directions. However, one would hope that the company will add more features and make the insoles a little less thick for simpler use, apart from crafting a user-friendly manual as well.
Getting smarter Smart shoe is an insole that is placed into a pair of shoes. The pre-programmed insole is able to connect to a smartphone via bluetooth and an application in order to select a destination and navigate the user.
Wearable navigation technologies are on an ascendance in a market that is still small and has not many products on offer. This means that you will be hard-pressed to find a pair that fits your style and comfort quotient, while various shoes might not be of comfort to you. This is where Lechal comes in. Brought together in the form of an insole, you can slip Lechal into your favourite pair of shoes. What is more, Lechal does not require you to check your smartphone screen constantly for directions. This means huge power saving on your device and hence a longer battery life for your navigation technology. Lechal is a saviour in that it allows you to transfer the brain app from one shoe to the other shoe. This means that the user stays connected to GPS navigation irrespective of the attire.
As a wearable technology, Lechal makes use of low power haptic feedback vibrations and GPS tracking to keep you on the track. Lechal allows users to tag places of interest and see the previous places attended by the user. Light vibration in your left or your right foot will prompt you about the directions that you need to take. The vibration patterns required for turning and the various kinds of rerouting are coded into the Lechal app. The app also allows you to set specific waypoints on the route, so that when the user reaches a destination, he/she receives notification via haptic feedback. The app can work in the offline mode since it stores all the required map data before hand. This feature is quite helpful when the user plans on traveling abroad. Lechal insoles are usable together with the app to record data on the GPS map. Therefore, if you see a place of interest along the way you only have to tap the ground with your toes once. This is enough to tag the place. Once tagged, you can share the location with friends via your phone and follow your friends in real time by the app.
It also allows users to track their fitness levels in great precision with a pedometer, distance, and calorie count. Features:
Navigate with your hands off your phone.
Put the insoles in your shoes and receive turn-by-turn directions through vibrations in your insoles.
Precise fitness tracking through steps taken, calories, and distance.
It has on offer complete fitness navigation that allows youto pick your routes as per the stats your previous performance generated.
Lechal app allows multiple person co-ordination so that you can set targets and compete with friends.
Lechal allows data synchronization with fitness apps.
In all, Lechal has proved itself to be is more than just a gadget. The wearable technology stays with you under all conditions. Lossless and damage proof, with great battery life and offline capability, Lechal is a complete delight for those who want to walk, ride, or drive around the world hands free, eyes free and care free.
Why shove it in your pocket when you can wear it? We won’t be surprised if you’ve ditched some everyday devices in favour of these feature-laden gadgets, some of which let you book cabs with a mere twist of the wrist. There’s even some that can be slipped into shoes, or worn to shade your eyes from the sun, or experience reality in its virtual form.
Apple Watch Series 2
After the first Watch, people expected the Apple Watch Series 2 to have a big enough upgrade. So does it pack all the punches that could make it a necessity, rather than a luxury? Yes and no. Yes, because there are various tech upgrades that we wanted, including a new waterresistant design, a GPS chip on board for tracking your runs, a swim tracker and a much faster processor. The expensive gold variant of the Watch is now replaced by a new white ceramic finish, while the Hermes band reappears to send the cost of the top-spec model further north (now you know about the ‘no’). Rs 21,900 on amazon.in
PlayStation VR
Sony has been the pioneer of video gaming globally over the past decade or so, and is now planning to take on the likes of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in the virtual reality space. Its own headset, the PS VR, requires a gaming console, unlike the devices in competition that work on PCs or with smartphones. The headset is also much cheaper than its rivals and comes across as a robust piece of hardware. It will work only with a PS4 console, which is its drawback. Rs 39,900 on amazon.in
GOQii Heart Tracker
The Californian company wants the heart rate tracking of their latest fitness band to be its biggest selling point, but we feel that it’s got much more to offer. It comes with an optional personal coaching subscription, which assigns you an individual trainer to keep you on your toes through the synced GOQii smartphone app every day. This is great if you’re in real need of motivation, but not so much if you don’t like getting nagged too much. That said, the band will also keep a track of your heart rate, daily steps, calories burned, distance covered, active hours and sleep patterns. What we especially loved about the band is that it needs no separate charger. The detachable core can be plugged into any power source via its USB integrated charger, and it lasts for more than a week on a full charge. Also worth mentioning is a decent sized screen that displays Whatsapp, SMS, Email and call notifications. Rs 2,999 on amazon.in
Lechal insoles
Developed in India, these wearables function in a unique way. Two pods slot into the bottom of the insoles (which can be cut to your foot size) and connect via Bluetooth to the Lechal app on your smartphone, which has a GPS navigation feature. Once installed in your shoes, the left and right pods buzz depending on which way you have to turn, in a series of patterns that can be quickly learned, thus saving you from having to peer at your phone’s screen all the time. Importantly, the insoles allow visually challenged users to fully take in their environment aurally, without having to grapple with audio instructions on a conventional GPS system. The app also tracks the steps you’ve taken, the distance you’ve travelled and the calories you’ve burned. The pods have a claimed life of 15 days on each charge. Rs 6,999 on amazon.in
Fitbit Charge 2
This sleek wearable has a number of useful features, at a price that isn’t stratospheric. Being from the Fitbit family, you can connect with other Fitbit-wearing friends and challenge yourselves to achieve fitness goals. The device itself tracks your heart rate, steps, distance travelled, floors climbed, sleep patterns, calories burned and number of active minutes, among others. You can also keep track of your fluid and calorie intake, set silent alarms (the unit buzzes on your wrist), see call/text/calendar notifications, practice deep breathing with a timed function and set different workout modes, apart from telling the time. Rs 14,999 on amazon.in
Snapchat Spectacles
Snapchat (now Snap Inc) sprung one of the biggest surprises of the year after announcing its entry into hardware. The company’s first venture in this space are the Spectacles, which are essentially sunglasses with an embedded camera. They allow users to easily capture moments in their lives and then wirelessly save them to the app’s Memories feature. Just like the smartphone application that they originate from, the modern-day lure of the spectacles remain a mystery – but against the new features of Instagram Stories, the challenges keep mounting for Snap. Nonetheless, they exude a certain charm and also have a sense of swag about them, from the design to the cute robots you buy them from. So if you want to experiment with your specs next time you buy a pair, you know what to do. Rs 15,700 on amazon.in
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