The entire world has been waiting for decades with baited breath for the arrival of real, working shoe phone technology. You find that hard to believe? Would you believe that someone, somewhere, has been occassionally thinking about shoe phones? Well, the shoe phone finally lives, as you will discover below, and as you can hear for your self, here or here, or listen to an ABC interview which gets interrupted by the shoe phone ringing.
Listen to a radio interview conducted by shoe-phone!
The attention the shoe phone has generated has been quite flattering, including the production of shoe phones by others, resulting in an instructibles article and the first shoe phone on ebay. Perhaps what is most surprising is that no one had actually made a working shoe phone before. But now that cat has been let out of the bag ...Upcoming Shoe Phone Events
The shoe phone will appear on or at:- On TV in Canada/USA again (probably some time in May)
Would you believe that a shoe phone is safer than metal cutlery?
Well, the Civil Aviation Authority thinks so. Post 9/11 we can't take metal cutlery into the cabin of a plane, but I have received authority to wear the shoe phone while flying from Adelaide, Australia to San Francisco, USA:
[Credit: Alasdair McLellan]
There is a serious side to this stunt, in that as technology progresses ubiquitous computing will continue to become
more common, and it is important that society understands what is and what is not possible, and how ubiquitous computing
fits into a society that must also deal with issues such as our response to terrorism.
Remote Patient Care: The Serious Side Of Shoe Phones
A significant part of the shoe phone project is the potential medical applications, as summarised in this television report:
And also described in this Flinders University press release.
The medical applications of the shoe phone will be a project for final year student's at Flinders University's School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics.
With this shoe phone, I have had a number of media appearances and citations on the medical applications of shoe phone technology, including:
- As a headline story on the South Australian ABC evening news at 7pm on the 22nd of January of 2009:
- a Flinders University news item
- the ABC Coast FM (Queensland, Australia) breakfast show on 23rd January 2009 (interview conducted via shoe phone).
- 4BC Radio (Queensland, Australia) drive show with Michael Smith on 23rd January 2009 (interview conducted via shoe phone).
- ABC South Australia Video News Item, 23rd January 2009.
- In the print and on-line editions of The Advertiser, South Australia's main news paper on 24th January 2009.
- ABC Radio (Queensland, Australia) on 29th January 2009 (interview conducted via shoe phone).
- 5AA Radio (South Australia, Australia) at 6:30pm on 31st January 2009.
- Editor's choice story on the ABC South Australia Online News on 2nd February 2009 (where the interview is interrupted by the shoe phone ringing).
- ABC Radio (Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia) on 13 February 2009.
- ABC Radio 666 (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia) on 2nd March 2009.
- MIX FM (Sydney, Australia) on 3rd March 2009.
- The Today Show (Channel 9 National Coverage, Australia) on 3rd March 2009.
- In the The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper (National, Australia) on 3rd March 2009.
- Radio New Zealand (Aukland, New Zealand) on 5th March 2009.
- 2UE Radio (Sydney, Australia) on 7th March 2009.
- TV3's "Campbell Live" (video) (New Zealand) on 16th March 2009.
- The NBC Today Show (Nation wide, USA) on 20th March 2009 (citation only).
- The print and on-line editions of the The Australian newspaper (Nation wide, Australia) on 25th March 2009.
- RTR FM (Perth, Australia) on 7th April 2009.
- SEN Sport Radio Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia) on 7th April 2009.
- Triple M 104.5 Brisbane, "The Cage with Ian, Emily-Jade, Marto & Sully" on 8th April 2009.
- Vega 95.3 FM Sydney, "Breakfast with Tony Squires, Mikey Robbins & Rebecca Wilson" on 8th April 2009.
- ABC Radio 702 NSW, "Breakfast with Adam Spencer" on 8th April 2009.
- ABC Radio Northern Tasmania, "Breakfast with Hilary Burden" on 8th April 2009.
- Triple M Sydney, "Breakfast with Ugly Phil & Sami Lukis" on 8th April 2009.
- Gold 104.3 Melbourne, "Breakfast with Grubby & Dee Dee" on 8th April 2009.
- Nova 91.9 Adelaide, "Breakfast with Fitzy, Claire & Jules" on 8th April 2009.
- On the CBAA Network (CSU) "Home Page" show on 8th April 2009.
- ABC Radio 612 Brisbane, "Mornings with Madonna King" on 8th April 2009.
- ABC Radio 999 Broken Hill, "Outback Outlook" on 8th April 2009.
- ABC Radio 720 Perth, "Afternoons with Bernadette Young" on 8th April 2009.
- Radio 5AA Adelaide, "Afternoons with Amanda Blair" on 8th April 2009.
- In a segment on The New Inventors on ABC1 at 8pm on Wednesday 8th April, 2009.
- IEEE RTAS Conference, San Francisco Monday 13th - Thursday 16th April 2009.
- At the South Australian Human Computer Interaction Special Interest Group in Adelaide, 28th April 2009.
- On A Current Affair (Channel 9, South Australia), 5th May 2009.
- In the August 2009 issue of Popular Science
- In the September 2009 issue of the Qantas in-flight magazine
- In various other news services around the world, e.g., as reported by Google.
Notes About Previous "Shoe Phones"
Aside from the props used in the TV series, there have been other shoe phones, but I believe that none have been true "shoe phones", according to the following criteria:- Wearable as a shoe; can be worn and walked in for several hours.
- Functional as a telephone; can receive, and preferably place telephone calls.
- Operates as a mobile telephone; does not require a wired connection to the telephone network.
- the KGB Shoe Trasmitter which was in use from the 1950s through to around 1970, i.e., while Get Smart was being aired (not a telephone, because it contains no means of reception).
- the 1985 Guinness World Record Smallest Telephone (not a mobile telephone).
- Shaq's Shoe Phone of 2005 (cannot be worn without breaking it).
- The many shoe-shaped telephones on the market (not wearable as a shoe; not a mobile telephone).
Generation 2 Shoe Phone (all electronics distributed between two shoes)
Together with the Generation 1 shoe phone, this shoe phone was constructed as a prop for a church camp, after which I realised the potential medical applications of the shoe phone. I'll be uploading some more images of this shoe phone here in the near future, but for now, here are a few pictures. I have also created an instructable.Generation 1 Shoe Phone (blue tooth headset in shoe; phone in pocket)
Read about it here, or check out the instructable.Other Related Gadgets
I also made a cone of silence and a phone booth for the same event that the shoe phones were originally made.The image gallery contains more images of the shoe phone, in both small screen size and high resolution for press.
Dr. Paul Gardner-Stephen.
PS: If you like the shoe phone, then you might also like my credit-card sized enigma machine made out of paper.
