'Shoe phone' may soon be a reality

Melbourne, Jan 23 (ANI): A Flinders University computer scientist is trying to make the shoe phone a reality.

Post-doctoral fellow in bioinformatics, Paul Gardner-Stephen, who first developed a 'phone inside a shoe' as an amateur theatre prop, insists that there are practical and technological advantages of the device, reports News.com.au.

"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," the expert added.

According to the scientist, there was potential to develop the telephone function for use in home nursing and aged care facilities.

The shoe-based platform made it possible for the device to detect shocks and orientation changes resulting from a fall and then call for help, the expert said. (ANI)