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"I feel like I've been very fortunate in that I've stuck like a burr to the dog-leg of the next generation of nerdism. I've been carried into the XXIth century on Bill Gates' pants-cuff."
- William Gibson
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| Digital Running Shoes | ||
| Shoes with a digital readout showing performance. |
I can't believe that Nike - or somebody - doesn't make one of these right now. You can buy pedometers that hook onto your belt or even tie onto your shoe, but why not just make it part of the shoe?
| David sat on the floor with limber grace and put Laura's foot in his lap. He unlaced her shoe and glanced at its readout. "That's pretty rotten time. You must have been limping, babe." |
| Technovelgy from Islands in the Net,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by William Morrow in 1988 Additional resources -
|
If people don't balk at paying $150 for a pair of running shoes, the materials necessary to make a running meter couldn't cost more than a few dollars.
The shoe could power the display; see the entry for stillsuit, from the novel Dune, by Frank Herbert.
As it turns out, there was such a thing as a runner's shoe with a digital readout. Called the Micropacer, it was created by Adidas in 1985. A sensor in the toe of the shoe connected to a microprocessor embedded in the tongue, which calculated speed, distance and the caloric output of the person wearing the shoe. The shoe was a failure. I've read that Adidas tried again recently in Europe with a third generation of this shoe.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Islands in the Net
More Ideas
and Technology by Bruce Sterling
Tech news articles related to Islands in the Net
Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling
Digital Running Shoes-related
news articles:
- Raven - VectraSense ThinkShoe With DigitalDNA
- Shiftwear Display Shoes
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| Kolors Virtual-Try-On Predicted, And TRIED, By Harry Harrison |
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"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
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'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
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