Samsung has unveiled, to everyone’s surprise, a new way to interact with your smartphone while keeping your hands free, that is to say using your feet.
Introducing the company’s new “Shortcut Sneaker,” an ultra-limited-run sports shoe that allows those who wear it toperform various actions on their Galaxy phone by making specific movements and gestures with their feet.
Before you get too excited to buy a pair, here’s the catch: Samsung is only producing 6 pairs total of these unique shoes as part of a competition for Samsung members in the Netherlands. Indeed, there will only be about half a dozen of these sneaker/mobile hybrids in existence on the entire planet, at least for now.
Samsung launches unique shoes, we explain
The few lucky winners will be able to connect the Shortcut Sneakers to their Samsung phone via Bluetooth. Motion sensors integrated into the insoles can then detect particular movements of the foot and trigger predefined actions on the connected device. Want to listen to your favorite music? Perform a kick and a pirouette. Want to make a hands-free call? Trigger it by doing your best Michael Jackson moonwalk.
According to Samsung, each pair allows users to program up to 5 different foot gestures to launch 5 different commands on the smartphone, like making calls, playing media files, opening apps, etc. The possibilities are only limited by your ability to move your hips.
Designed in collaboration with advertising agency Cheil Benelux and others, the sneakers themselves are as eye-catching as the technology behind them. Featuring an otherworldly aesthetic inspired by the cosmic grandeur of the Milky Way, each pair looks ready to launch into orbit at a moment’s notice.
Samsung tapped Dutch shoe designer Roel van Hoff to design the look and feel of the Shortcut Sneakers, which incorporate materials and textures reminiscent of meteorites and supernovae. The end result is a shoe that seems designed to use your favorite smartphone app, with your feet.
For those of us who weren’t lucky enough to win a pair, Samsung is staying quiet about any plans to bring foot-activated smartphone controls to a larger scale. But just using shoes as a new interface for our mobile devices is sure to turn heads. It remains to be seen whether these sneakers will start the next big trend in wearable mobile technology or if it’s just a one-time coup.