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Apple’s forte, as we have seen over recent years, is mobile computing. From MacBooks to iPhones and iPads, the company has dished out one perfect product after another. Now, it seems, the company has its eyes set somewhere else too. A new patent shows that Apple may be getting into the ‘smart shoes’ business.

A recently published patent application shows a unique ‘shoe technology’ that relies on a number of sensors placed in the wearer’s shoes. Based upon these sensors, information such as when a new pair of shoes is in order and whether the shoes are healthy enough for the user can be made available.

Of course, the fact that Apple is patenting this technology doesn’t mean that Apple is currently working on it. However, it must be noted that the technology does seem intriguing, especially because we haven’t seen any similar product from any other vendor.

So how does these ‘Shoe wear-out sensor, body-bar sensing system, unitless activity assessment and associated methods’ work. The summary of the filing describes the technology as such:

“A body bar sensing system for sensing movement of a body bar may be provided. The body bar sensing system may include a housing having a coupling mechanism operative to couple to the body bar, a detector disposed within the housing and operative to sense movement of the body bar when the housing is coupled to the body bar, and a processor operative to determine a number of repetitions of the movement based on the sensed movement.”

The sensors can be made to calculate a whole lot of metrics, including a child’s daily activity, the amount of stress taken by an injured leg and more. There are virtually endless possibilities here. And given the fact that most of us wear shoes through the greater part of the day, a pair of ‘smart shoes’ can be an enticing prospect for many consumers.

Source: USPTO

Courtesy: CNET

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