Shoes that detect WiFi?

“A Step in the Right Direction” is apparently the name of a new prototype shoe that could detect WiFi hot-spots where the users are walking.

The shoes have a full tower PC in the platform heel integrated electronics, including a pressure sensor in the sole to start scans, LED indicators in the top, and presumably something connecting it all together.

I sometimes wonder whether we over-engineer solutions to potentially simple problems – surely at points before this you would have got your laptop/PDA/mobile out and done a simple scan? These shoes remind me of those ones that kids have which light up when they run. Actually they remind me of novelty slippers, like these:

Hmmmm.

[Via: Technorati]