Lechal Navigation Shoes Find Your Way Home.

" Wizard of Oz The heroine Dorothy, just put her ruby slippers together, and they can find their way home to Kansas. Now, a high-tech startup in India has developed a realistic version of ruby slippers. The intelligent sports shoes with built-in GPS positioning system can also indicate the direction for wearers.

This is the name of the red sports shoes. LeChal navigation shoes In addition to the guiding function, it can also record the number of steps, the distance traveled and the energy consumed. LeChal is connected to the Smartphone Application through a removable Bluetooth receiver. It can guide the wearers to use Google map to find the direction, and send the vibration signal to guide the wearer to turn left or right.

LeChal navigation shoes are developed by Crispin Lawrence (KrispianLawrence), a India born graduate from Engineering Department of University of Michigan, and Aniruch Sharma (AnirudhSharma). They set up a technology company Ducere in a small apartment in 2011 under the assistance of angel investors. Now they have more than 50 employees. LeChal will be on sale in September.

Laurence said: "we think of this idea and realize that it may be very helpful for people with visual impairments. It works without any audio or distraction. It can liberate you completely without having to look down at your smartphone or bind to anything else. These shoes work by instinct. Imagine that if someone filmed your right shoulder, your body would turn right, that's how LeChal works. "

It is understood that smart shoes are usually targeted at specific groups of people, such as Alzheimer's patients and office workers who need to monitor their children's activities. These products have been put into commercial use. But Laurence and Sharma believe that their products should be targeted at the mass consumers first, and focus on making fashion navigation shoes, not purely. Functional shoes 。

In addition to the flaming red sneakers, Laurence and Sharma have developed an insole that allows users to apply navigation technology to other shoes. Laurence said: "early wearable devices look like glasses or watches, but now they are changing."

So far, Ducere has received 25 thousand orders, ranging from $100 to $150. Most orders are ordered through word of mouth or lechal website. Now, Laurence and Sharma are negotiating with retailers to store more LeChal navigation shoes in India and the United States before the holidays. According to the forecast, by April, the sales volume of LeChal is expected to exceed 100 thousand pairs. The origin of these shoes is in China.

Wearable technology is a fast growing global industry. Market research firm IDC4 released a forecast report that global wearable technology sales will increase by 2 times this year to 19 million. By 2018, sales will reach 111 million 900 thousand. But this has also increased people's concerns about privacy security, though Ducere claims that it will not record user data and introduce a more secure mechanism.

Ducere said it hoped that LeChal navigation shoes would be useful for visually impaired people. Experts from the L.V.Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, southern India, are testing the comfort of LeChal. Expert Anthony Das (AnthonyVipinDas) said: "this is a perfect wearable technology product. You may forget to wear your seat belt or helmet, but you can't just leave your shoes. LeChal solves the problem of azimuth and direction, and will become a very good assistant.

But LeChal also has many problems at present, such as short battery life and failure of Bluetooth connectivity. Das says these problems can be solved by providing LiveFeed services to the wearer's friends or relatives. Ducere said they plan to use some of the future profits to subsidize the purchase of shoes for disabled users.

But compared to LeChal's high-tech functions, Laurence's favorite thing is that he is no longer worried about losing his cell phone. If the wearer is too far away from the cell phone, LeChal will issue a warning. Laurence said, "I am a very forgetful person. The best place for shoes is that I don't have to worry about forgetting where to put my cell phone.