Apple has always been known as an innovative company and in the past changed the smartphone industry for the better with the launch of the original iPhone back in 2007. This shook up the market with other companies having to up their game and we have news of an Apple patent that has been discovered that could easily be called iShoes, and is basically for a sensor and alarm system placed into footwear.

Another Apple patent has recently been found that shows a sensor and alarm system that can even be placed into footwear, and would provide users another way to decide when to replace shoes that had worn out.

It was originally filed back in the summer of 2012 and titled “Shoe wear-out sensor, body-bar sensing system, unitless activity assessment and associated methods”. The company is saying the footwear should not only offer comfort and protection, but also stability when doing physical activities and the support offered by footwear will decrease.

When the shoe gets to a critical stage with hardly any support left a sensor and alarm system could alert the user to help prevent injury. There is a detector placed in the shoe with a processor that sorts all the data collected, and an alarm that will make the user aware when the footwear is no longer stable.

The sensors can include a variety of different types that include pressure sensors, accelerometers, and more. The data collected is processed via an algorithm that can be specified by the manufacturer of the footwear, so can be set to what stage the shoe will fail.

This system gets its power from a built in battery unit, or a mechanical electric generation device, and the alarm can be an LED light or display, and even a speaker. There are also suggestions the system could be used with mobile devices such as the iPhone or iPad.

Various patents by Apple often appear but many of them may never see the light of day with regards to products released to the public, but this may eventually be seen in some sports shoes in the future. Source and image: AppleInsider.

Do you think we will ever see this idea?