The Australian:
In the days of modern cellular technology, the idea of having an Agent 86-style phone inside a shoe might not seem particularly advanced.
But Paul Gardner-Stephen, who first developed his device as an amateur theatre prop, insists there are practical and technological advantages.
It seems the shoe phone might offer extended battery life and could even be used in medical applications to detect falls or other medical emergencies and automatically call for help.
“Relaying voice communications via a shoe is technologically similar to relaying medical data for remote patient monitoring, such as pulse, blood pressure, blood oxygenation and so forth,” Dr Gardner-Stephen said.
“And a shoe is a good location for housing the electronics required for storing and communicating these measurements.
“Secondly, because our feet, and therefore our shoes, conduct large forces as we stand and walk, energy can be harvested to charge the device during ordinary activity.
“A shoe-based device would not only be easy to wear, it could run significantly longer between battery charges.”
Photo by Columbia Broadcasting System.