Last updated: 25 November 2019
This is the tenth in a series of posts around the Gemalto M2M Fact or Fiction quiz, which pits you against a series of scenarios – real or imagined – to test how much of an M2M visionary you are. For the whole quiz, click here, and for other posts in the series – click here.
Serious runners and wannabe fitness enthusiasts alike may be familiar with the ‘Zombie Run’ game (and series of real-world races!), which sees your smartphone deliver voice prompts to motivate you to greater speed when running to avoid a – usually imaginary – fast-encroaching horde of the undead.
And everyone who’s ever touched a short-circuited home appliance will know that the application of a high voltage to the human body can act as a tremendous motivational factor to move, fast. So perhaps combining both in a set of trainers would be the perfect training aid? GPS and accelerometers, after all, are already used for pace detection in smartphone running apps, if you connected them via an NFC or Bluetooth link to an electrode in the running shoe, it could be the perfect combo?
Perhaps, but not yet. Safety implications aside, Nike, New Balance and the rest haven’t yet seen the commercial potential in this specific feature set. What’s interesting is that there actually is a set of vibrating insoles developed to help the elderly to regain their balance, which do indeed make use of M2M technology and a smartphone app to help control the soles and address quite a serious problem. More on the real vibrating insoles here.
And if you’re interesting in getting an electric shock whilst running, you can always take on one of the Tough Mudder challenges featuring an electroshock obstacle course, and wear metal on your person!
As a parting thought in this post, we’ll leave you with another piece of electrical scientific experimentation, in the 30th anniversary year of this groundbreaking film:
Did you get this question right in our quiz? Take it here.
