Sensors search the sole for signs of life.
No, it's your running shoes, sending a distress call. Runners Mike Strasser, MS '01, and Steve Myers, MS '98, recently unveiled an invention that signals when shoes need to be replaced. The sensors relay the information to a microprocessor linked to a tiny light panel on the back of the sneaker. As the shoe ages, the lights dim, then begin to blink when the end is near. Strasser says the invention works rather like test strips that show when a battery is weakening.