The Artificial intelligence It is still used in our day to day. One of its most recent uses is in the sneaker market: the Italian company wahu launched some that customize the level of cushioning.
The model works with sensors that adjust the damping, managing it with an app on a smartphone. The sensors also receive information about the user’s walking and running habits.
“Wahu shoes use w lift technology patented to allow you to customize the level of damping of your body, through the connected app, which goes from 0 to 2.5 bar of additional damping”, Wahu reviews, through the portal Geeky Gadgets.
“Through air flows and pressure, Wahu’s w-lift technology allows you to modify the morphology of the soles while creating a layer of air between your feet and the ground.”
They are a kind of floating hulls with a pneumatic system, that harnesses and controls the airflow within the sole, allowing a person to “levitate a little bit of the ground they’re walking or running on,” according to Wahu.
“The pressure, acceleration and gyroscope sensors inside the shoe will detect user activity to improve the feedback of the shoes”, highlights the Italian company.
Wahu’s Artificial Intelligence, at your feet
Wahu created a machine learning algorithm, key to Artificial Intelligence, to read the sensor data and feed the Wahu app, available for iOS and Android, and integrable with Apple and Samsung watches.
The app not only adjusts the level of “flotation”, but also controls the duration of its battery (each shoe has a 14-hour battery), recording separately the distance traveled, the elapsed time and the quality of the walk.
The downside of Wahu’s technology is that It cannot be used on rustic land, only on well-compacted streets and paths. One of the challenges of the Italian company is to improve the system for sand or rocks, especially considering off-road races.
There are two models that the company presents: one with predominant black color and white antesoles, black soles; the other, with white color in the main part, black details and orange soles.
Selling price is $187, working with the retailer Kickstarter.