GPS shoes use LED lights to guide you home

A London designer has created a pair of GPS-enabled shoes with LED lights that guide walkers home from anywhere in the world.

The shoes have red lights which show the direction the wearer should walk, combined with a 'progress bar' that shows how far they have to go.

They are powered by a GPS sensor built into the shoes, with an antenna that pops up at the back, and a mobile phone-style battery.

The shoes communicate with each other as the wearer walks, and will guide the wearer home from any distance.

The shoes are currently on display at an exhibition at KK Outlet in Hoxton Square in London, and were designed by Dominic Wilcox.

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There is no plan as yet to bring the shoes into full production, but the prototype is fully working now.

Wilcox says, "I was commissioned by the Global Footprint project in Northamptonshire, a place famous for shoe making, to create some shoes. I decided to make a pair of shoes that can navigate you home where ever you are.

"I thought about the Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy could click her shoes together to go home. After uploading your required destination to the shoes via a piece of custom made mapping software and a USB cable, the GPS, which is embedded in the heal, is activated by a heel click.

"It then communicates to the wearer via a ring of LED lights to point in the required direction. The shoe with the GPS wirelessly communicates with the right shoe that has a progress bar of lights to show how close you are to the destination."

"The progress bar starts with one red light at the beginning of the journey and ends on the green light when you arrive. The correct direction to walk is shown by the illumination of one of the LED's on the circle."