Adidas_1 intelligent shoe wins Popular Science award
Adidas’ new adidas_1 has become the first ever shoe to be awarded Popular Science’s ‘Best of What’s New’ award at the magazine’s annual award ceremony.
The shoe – that adidas claims is the most advanced available - continually senses, understands and adapts to the individual runner’s needs, thus allowing comfortable, customised cushioning. The sensor incorporated into the shoe is so sophisticated that it is accurate to within the width of a human hair; it can make five million calculations per second; and has a motor that apparently turns faster than the blades of a Blackhawk helicopter - regardless of the weight of the runner or the terrain.
The shoe - that was kept secret for three years - was developed using a sensor and a magnet to monitor the cushioning level of the shoe. An inbuilt computer calculates whether the cushioning is too soft or too hard and then adapts it with a motor-driven cable system. This whole process is claimed to be undetectable to the wearer, with the only noticeable thing said to be that the shoe remains comfortable throughout the run.
