News in Science - The tale of the v-v-v-vibrating shoes - 27/01/2005

News in Science - The tale of the v-v-v-vibrating shoes - 27/01/2005: "Shoes that vibrate to signal a rise or fall in share price have been created by Australian scientists.

Researchers at National ICT Australia, a consortium of universities and government departments, created the size-10 brogues to demonstrate alternative computing interfaces.

'We're using the shoes as a bit of fun but also to show people that we can output information from a computer in other ways than through a screen,' says Professor Peter Eades.

Scientists fitted the shoes with mobile phone vibrators to create a haptic interface, where the sense of touch provides feedback to the user.

'We could have used heat; we could have even created them to release different scents,' says Eades, although the researchers concentrate on visualisation, speech and gesture for computer interaction.

"In 10 years the wall will become your screen. Information will be in your clothing, in your furniture," says Eades."

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Hmmm? ABC News in the pants?