Wired reports that Nike has filed a patent for auto-lacing sneakers. The design, which sports a lighting system in addition to an automatic lacing scheme, is reminiscent of Marty McFly’s high tech footwear from Back to the Future 2.
The lighting system, while faintly ridiculous, is nothing new. I remember begging my parents for those spiffy LA Gears, which lit up every time the person wearing them took a step (or was jostled in a particularly violent manner).
While the self-lacing scheme may have been inspired by the 1989 time travel caper, the US Patent Office found it original enough to be eligible for patent registration. I find the idea amusing, but I have to ask, what is it for? Is it meant to be a novelty? Or is it intended to simplify something that doesn’t need simplification. I mean, there's convenience, and then there's appealing to preternatural laziness.
Isn’t Velcro simple enough? Have people gotten so lazy that the act of tying one’s shoelaces needs to be automated? The answer, it seems, is yes. And based on this video, which shows a robot that has been programmed to fold socks, no task is so simple that it can’t be automated, and given to a robot to perform.
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