Free Black Combat Boots Creative Commons by D Sharon Pruitt
DARPA, everyone’s favorite organization that sounds suspiciously like Dharma, is working on tracking sensors that can be embedded into the sole of a shoe. Micro Inertial Navigation Technology, or MINT for short, is being jointly developed by Case Western University and Intersense (of the Massachusetts Intersenses). These sensors are designed to provide location information in places that satellite-based navigation services fail. Think inside caves in Afghanistan.
Intersense currently makes NavShoe™, which is geared for firemen or paramedics lost or trapped during disaster situations. Alas, it’s not very accurate. The whizkids at Case Western should be able to improve upon the NavShoe with their “high-resolution, error-correction ground reaction sensor cluster” to make tracking systems suitable for use by Uncle Sam.
Hat tip El Reg.