Are The Moonwalker Electric Shoes a Good Idea?
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- čas přidán 12. 01. 2024
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Ive always had a fast walking speed and found it incredibly tiring to walk at the pace of other people.
My knees start feeling funny if I walk too slow
People always complain that I walk too fast. If I try to walk at their pace I feel sluggish, awkward and its exhausting. They always think I'm exaggerating..
@themonkeyman2547 My hip joints ache. I've slowed down a bit because of parkinsons but I still walk faster than most, and find myself thinking, 'How do you people ever get anywhere?'
@notcorrect Exactly! I'm pleased The Action Lab supports my claim that walking more slowly than your natural pace is difficult.
Im a fast walker as well but i feel like u are being over dramatic about it. I just found the movement of slow walking to be awkward, that’s all
Edited: oh i see u have Parkinson as well. I just thought u were the average fast walker.
Please don't advertise BetterHelp who sell your data to advertisers and let anyone in their "professional" roster without verification
Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of bad stories of the so called “therapists” not even doing what they’re supposed to do and sometimes even giving up. One person had to go through like 5 or 6 different people to find a decent therapist that actually helped
@@JunkieRemix hard truth is that therapists are like anyone else, and it takes a very unusual person to master the complexities of the work, most don t.
@@CrakenFlux Bro what? Either *you* are a very unusual person, or you have never gone to therapy.
There’s actually a big trend in the hiking community for lighter shoes; it’s commonly shared that each pound on your feet uses the same energy as 3 pounds carried. So 10lb of moonwalkers burns the energy of carrying 30lb. I’d rather just walk faster lol
With nothing else changing, it seems like the most efficient way to do it if nothing else changes, is to strap the battery and control portion to a waist strap so it isn’t on your feet.
ive never heard this, ive been hiking since i was 7. people cut their toothbrush in half to save grams in their pack, but never have I heard such a relationship from foot to pack. How many people are using shoes that weigh that much? Plus the equation itself doesnt pan out in my eyes. you saying me walking around with one pound shoes is the same as a backpack of 30lbs? So if i take my shoes off and carry a 30lb backpack it will feel like im walking with shoes on? Not even over 30miles a day, i dont see that making sense. Ive worn 5lb weights around the house and they dint feel like 150lbs. And yes I understand its cumulative calories burned.
@@threestans9096 What is easier, walking around with 20lb backpack or walking around with two 10 lb weights in your hands. You are constantly moving/lifting your hands/feet whereas the backpack stays in place. It takes more energy to lift something over and over than it is to lift it once.
@@threestans9096 you misread my comment. I said 3:1 not 30:1. I equated 10lb moonwalkers to 30lb on the back.
Lookup ultralight hiking shoes, they are gaining popularity for this reason, they are often 1-2lb lighter than traditional hiking boots
@@threestans9096 I also said “trend”. You said you were hiking since you were 7. That explains why you haven’t heard it, this is a new “trend”, not old conventional wisdom that anyone was doing when you were 7. I only know about it because I very recently became interested in hiking and did a lot of research about it, and everywhere I looked I saw articles talking about how inefficient traditional hiking boots are and how important lighter trail shoes are (weather permitting).
When I was still hiking, sometimes multi-day hikes (longest one was eight days crossing the Sierra Nevada) we put a lot of thought into optimizing the gear we had to carry with us. One of the best lessons I learned was that for every lb of weight of your boots you would do as much work as carrying 5lb in your backpack.
I never questioned the accuracy of the numbers, or why it should work out like that, but seeing this video, and the bio-mechanics explanation, it became obvious: the weight in your backpack hardly goes up and down at all when you are walking.
I guess that is just a long-winded way of saying: how much could you increase the efficiency of these moonwalkers by putting the battery and the control electronics in a pack that could be carried in a hip pack leaving only wheels, motors and some sensors to be carried on the feet?
The weight in your pack should also be as high as possible as your hips accelerate slightly more (forward and back & up and down) with each step than your head.
@@robertparkinson2102True. I wrote "hip pack" as it just seemed more convenient considering it would have to be connected by wires to the shoes, and would still give a large bio-mechanical advantage.
Not sure why I'm still following up on this though, as I'm firmly in the "This is a goofy idea that will never catch on." camp 😄
Barefoot hiking ( or aqua shoes at most) for the win
As exercise scientist, I would say that more important than the total energy is the specific strain applied to certain muscles such as the hip flexors to elevate the foot! Depending on the person and the gait pattern, these shoes can be really cool or really strenuous
exercise scientist?? u mean trainer
where do you guys come with all these job names. ''Architect of science of exercising user experience of movement physics''
@HowDareYouu cooks now call themselves food scientist. Is the growing trend to add scientist or engineer to everything.
@@HowDareYouu Maybe like: _"Rindfleischetiketterungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesets"_ *("beef law")* ?
!\s
What are the qualifications of an exercise scientist?
@@HowDareYouu A personal trainer does a course for a fortnight, an exercise scientist studies a Bachelor and/or Masters/PhD. Ask any adult about it, it's a common thing to study.
Have you ever tried an upward incline using the moonwalk electric shoes?
I was thinking about that as well. I was thinking that downhill could just be a roller-skate mode or even regenerative braking mode but uphill is a different game entirely.
Almost sounded like they had a ratcheting system for just that so they wouldn’t roll backwards. How well they grip is another story.
E-bikes are a godsend especially on inclines. So depending on how these are implemented, that might actually be their killer feature idk.
Or a downward incline with those kid's shoes with the wheel built in. Simples.
Or tried to get back up after falling
I'm excited for these kinds of shoes not because of everyday walking, but a solution to locomotion in VR. The idea is that the shoes bring you back to the center of the playspace while walking forward like a "reverse treadmill"
Sounds like a great way to add even more motion sickness to the situation.
@@itsd0nk sounds like a problem for people getting motion sick, sucks to be them
@@itsd0nksounds like a great way to inevitably end up on your face or head butting the wall when the power goes out, or the battery dies, or the connection glitches, etc.
@@UsDiYoNa I'd love to be able to trip in VR. So immersive
There’s rarely motion sickness in vr. This is a criticism from like ten years ago before the refresh rate was increased. Give it a try, you’ll see what I mean. @@itsd0nk
As someone who tends to walk really fast, I would love to have these. The idea of outpacing someone else that's running while just walking is hilarious to me.
OR, you need to use the washroom real bad!
It sounds like the most efficient way to use these things would be to speed walk with them. You'd probably use less energy than running but achieve that speed!
Roller blades are effective because there's less need to lift the foot , they are pretty light and they greatly increase the distance of each "step" plus enable more aggressive pushing instead of mostly falling forwards.
Although I haven't tried wearing them or ice skating blades for longer than a couple hours, aside from the funny missing foot feeling it doesn't seem to fatigue the legs much.
But can't you just bring a booster board?
@@YounesLayachi Stairs.
@@_Just_Another_Guy i used to in-line skate , stairs are a non issue
The only problem i see with In-line skates which i like a lot to use, is entering in a buildinng with them ON... if not all buidings don't let you go in with them ON and usually you shouldn't to not get into problems... and with these moonwalker they can't say "hey you can't walk in here!" like the other roller shoes which were pretty cool back in the day... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just saying tho
The moonwalkers are solving a problem that nobody has and they make you look ridiculous doing it. I think this is the final nail in the coffin for them.
they're noisy too and you have to charge your fucking shoes
I'd rather just roller blade
@@AmnesiacSai yeah detachable blade rollerblades are so much better than this.
Walking is a solved nonproblem for humans by definition, and certainly it's not a tech gadget that will make it any better. Special shoes or walking sticks maybe, but not this thing ! Bouncy shoes mostly compensate for the rock hard surfaces we've created everywhere we go.
Also, it seems some people will do ANYTHING just to not have to walk.
After cars and the abomination of those horizontal two wheel "hover" things , now electric wheeled shoes.
They avoid walking as if it's a bad thing.
@@lasskinn474they would probably make more money with a detachable roller blade that has hooks/holster on the side of the shoe for the wheels
Silicon Valley in a nutshell
But... skates exist...
This is how Apple works. They make the world believes their innovative in creating things for the first time.
I like the concept, and the working product looks promising. As improvements i would say for sure make them lighter, maybe add a couple of different drive modes. Or keep them at current weight, but increase the speed gain to offset the curve.
Added functionality could include a normal mode that works as it currently does, but a bit faster, like 150% gain, and a speed mode that boosts a skating motion by 100%, autodetect gait change or manually or by Bluetooth. Maybe a user menu to adjust how much boost you get per mode. Perhaps a coast function.
There's so much room to make this a good product
1:20 looks like he thought you were just going to walk away 😂
I think he crossed the red line so the instructor just tell him to go back
It's not just the energy needed to lift them, but the added inertial to your legs that makes it harder to accelerate them and to slow them down as you move them forward and back.
Additionally, you used five pound ankle weights as reference, but these moonwalkers sit under your foot, creating a larger moment of inertia. That makes the moonwalkers expend more energy than the five pound ankle weights.
I guess THE TRUE purpose of those shoes is for you to burn your calories faster while also walking faster. So it is a physical exercise for fitness. Not bad, because otherwise Americans will become even fatter.
But biomechanics makes this far more complicated than it seems. Walking is far more efficient than simple physics calculations suggest. You don't have to use much energy to swing your foot forward because your leg acts as a pendulum and swings forward naturally. You also don't use that much energy to lift your feet because you can lift them by shifting your weight to the other foot.
hills make the difference ill bet.....especially the grueling downhills. those get me twice as fast as uphills.....all that strain on your hamstrings every single step
didn't he calculate the added inertia? he did that using 1/2 mv^2 formulae
We just love watching you explain these things, no matter how simple or complex they are.
Thank God for people like you who focus and diligent about learning, improving and finding out how useful and good a product is or probably everything in life.
Sponsored by Betterhelp - sharing your medical history so you don't have to !
I simply don't understand how CZcamsrs still accept sponsorship from them. The bare minimum before accepting a sponsorship is to research them.
Why can't they just work as electric rollerskates ?
Over designed
Right like you only should have to step to get over an obstacle
Probably way less efficient
Because they dont want to create something that already existed
@conor7154 electric roller skates do exist
im glad someone is here asking all the important questions
1:18 did he think you were gonna runaway with it?😂
I love this channel, these examinations of different protects from an engineering perspective is really fascinating. I know you have a doctorate and could teacher but I think you reach way more people this way.
Great video! I like it more when you get a bit more technical than usual 👍
Awesome video dude!
Ive always loved the people movers at the airport, where you can walk at normal speed but your actually cruising by pretty fast.
Hold on I think you missed something important. In your graph you slide along the X axis, but shouldn't you move along the Y axis also? If it takes you 250 Joules to walk a meter, and now the shoes let you walk 2 meters with that same motion, then you are really using 125 Joules per meter. Both axis are dependent on how many meters you move, and the shoes change that so both axis should change.
Move all possible components to the hip, like battery and controllers. Also make the back wheel grippy so the drop of the foot will slow down from friction instead of leg power
“If you’ve ever been out walking with friends”
Ah, no wonder I didn’t understand it
I'd be curious to see how you factor in wear and tear on various leg joints. Walking at twice your normal walking speed would seem to create more wear, but using the moonwalker shoes, you're actually taking less steps and this would seem to decrease wear on joints and other internal bio-mechanisms. If this can be proven through further calculations then the moonwalkers can be shown to increase energy consumption (not a bad thing necessarily, especially for folks wanting more of a workout or weight loss walking experience) and far less wear on a person's body!
Also please do a video of walking with these on a moving walkway at the airport! How fast can you go???
Hey @theactionlab Is this walking slower using more energy count for stairs too? I've always felt walking slowly up stairs to be way more tiring than just going up fast.
Hope you enjoyed Las Vegas James!
Informative , interesting! Made me think about an angle I had not considered
These are the hard hitting stories I’m sitting at the helm of YT waiting for
I think they could achieve the same effect passively using ratcheting wheels to allow your motion to glide forward but, then the ratchets would catch when you put any reverse force on them. the forward motion already created by walking would provide the glide forward. Kinda like roller skates that would only allow the wheels to roll in one direction and maybe add drag adjustments to adjust the speed of the glide forward like a rod and reel.
I searched the comments for this; I figured I wouldn't be the first! They need a smooth enough surface anyhow.
There exists such things already. They are used by cross country skiers for training on tarmac surfaces in the summer. Called rollerskis. They have ratcheting rear wheels. It is possible to go very fast just striding along without even using poles. Much faster than these electric shoes. Up or downhill too. Only downside is they have no brakes, but experienced skiers can brake by putting the skis into a V shape.
Not that I'd actually use them but to make them more efficient they should consider a roller-skate mode which lets the wheels turn freely so that if you have a downhill portion you don't have to use nearly as much energy and as a matter of fact if it were steep enough you could add regenerative braking so you could descend safely and charge your batteries in the process.
I have tried them and please don’t get them they feel super cheap are really loud in person plus the wheel seem to destroy themselves
Yeah, rollerskating in general is more energy efficient than walking, so it makes no sense for me those things wouldn’t let you do that.
@@Runoratsu I 100% agree with this plus these “shoes” are also 1200$ plus you can get second hand roller-skates that work great for way less and they are easier to handle
@@RalseiGaming Just as an added data point: the fastest rollerskate marathon is under one hour, while the fastest “traditional” marathon time is just over two hours. And that is despite rollerskate marathoning being a lot less popular, so it’s likely the skating athlete setting the record isn’t as genetically favored and unbelievably trained as the other one; a quicker time would probably be possible.
Since both will perform at 100% of their available energy, it stands to reason skating twice as fast must be _at least_ as efficient.
What if you need to go uphill?
1:48 the preferred walking speed is, in my experience, one of the greatest factors for making friends
This content is SO good. It’s so well researched, informed, and interesting! We really appreciate the work you put in, thank you!
Bipedal walking takes very little energy because legs are pendulums. A lot of the energy that you calculated in accelerating your foot forward and decelerating your foot before putting it down is automatic. Most of the energy is going to be in lifting the foot and keeping it lifted for the duration of the pendulum swing.
I’m not so sure it’s possible to feel “cool” while using those things 😂
1:20 dude thought you were about to walk off with the shoes and he started chasing you trying to play it off...😭😂😭
Very useful analysis.
You forget to factor in less friction (wheels) which can reduce the foot drag resistance force and some gravity while walking.
I think it's incredible that they created something that augments your walking speed while making it easy to learn. This product may not be a homerun, but the expertise they learned could be valuable. They may be able to create shoes that cancel out your movement, which could be useful in VR.
The probelm with that is they would then be catering to a fickle market where theres a push to skip past. Apple, Sony, Xreal, Google, ect have already started working on AR glasses (I have the pre-rebrand Xreal company Nreal air personally) and are wanting to push for a true MR world. This is also why digital realestate that takes real geograohic space is also already a market. Imagine having a digital scratch card ad ar gas pumps, or to have Jesus adds above churches. Distasteful and gross as it sounds (and is) this is the future tech companies want where because your car will naturally give you a video game styled arrow on where you're driving on maps or give you trivia about the history of an area or when its safe to cross the street. In a world where you dont have a reason to leave the mixed reality many people will simply choose not to. Gaming has mostly dropped of VR for simialr reasons. We know that the limitations facing VR currently are far too expensive for an end user to realistically pay for a good experince causing the products available for the equipment you bought not to be very good.
Sure I now have shoes to keep me in place, but they cost $200 with my $400 headset coming from my $500-3000 computer. Even if we just say its bundled with a powerful headset for $650 (way below standard loss for game consoles but for the argument) what company is going to make games that are both interactive and expansive enough for this mechanic to be of value at sucha high asking price. Perosnally i would enjoy it, but i also enjoy the sega32x and CD which are simialr in concept but also did not perform well for reasons that could easily be key word translated.
Mr-next gen
VR- currently being replaced gen
The shoes- console add on
Is there a ratcheting function built into the wheels? Just wondering because it sounds like it's either ratcheting on your forward step or the gears on those things are going to be stripped really fast unless you're lifting your feet up and not shuffling them.
There is another layer of biomechanics that adds even further to the complexity though. The difference in stress from stronger slower motions and that of faster less strenuous motions, which depending on the person can make the shoes more or less optimal at the preferred walking speed.
It seems to me that the solution would be to put the weight of the batteries on a belt, as the inefficiency comes from carrying the weight on your feet.
I do like the idea of using something like this for exercise. I’m curious how it would target muscles differently by taking deep steps while being propelled forward.
You could put the battery packs in a backpack and have much lighter shoes. Plus: you could use even more power to drive them, without increasing the weight. Accelerating the backpack is not an issue, as the forward movement is about a constant velocity.
Exactly. Why are heavy batteries being constantly lifted and dropped by the feet? Why aren't they at the waist or higher?
@@dennisquinn8558Yeah, the stupidity is baffling.
@@dennisquinn8558 wiring
it's not stupid, it's meant to be easy to wear. it already looks ridiculous enough, you don't want to add a dangling wire and a backpack or whatever to wear just to walk
@@Toalen Believe it or not, when wires protrude from a shoulder-pack or back-belt-pack to the back of these shoe attachments, not everyone may be as concerned as you - when it means the wearer achieves a faster walking speed with no additional effort.
Those who are concerned simply won't buy it.
I can imagine a video titled "Action Lab out of context" and it includes gems like "walking is an interesting concept"
I've used these for around 6 months, and can definitely confirm they're best for time saving, not energy saving.
I use them to make short connections in an airport terminal, and to navigate quickly at indoor conventions and events. If I know I'll be short on time and have the extra stamina, they're worth having in cases like those. Otherwise normal walking easily wins on efficiency.
I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. Often I want to get somewhere and am happy to spend effort doing so but don't want to jog. If this speeds me up and helps exercise my leg muscles without forcing me to jog (which I find unpleasant and more likely to make me sweat in my upper body because of the arm motions) that's a decent tradeoff.
So I'd totally use them if I got a free pair. Not worth spending money for me though.
Right. If they are used as a vehicle to get you to your destination faster rather than conserve energy, that's a 'value added' that doesn't really care about slightly less efficiency.
They are like the airport conveyor belts!
Using Moonwalkers ON airport conveyor belts. "Ludicrous speed!"
i wish that all the product be analyzed by someone like you who can give us nothing more than the truth thank you
Bro is a kind of guy who forces you into learning physics
You could use them as an excercise device by having the wheels turn the opposite way from where you're walking. Then you have the 5 lb weights and it takes more steps to get where youre going
Doctor - walk more
Action lab - walk less
walk less---(no)
walk slowly consciously but the same distance (yes)
Ever heard of “Heelies”? You go way faster than
This a a great debate about the physics and the opinions that come together in play
Video idea: hydrophobic suit in a pool
(it would be interesting and cool)
Fun video, but there's a big mistake with the way you're doing the graph analysis. When you increase the speed, you move the point to the left as a result, but you leave the vertical component without a change, this is wrong because if the total calorie expenditure is the same, and the speed increases, joules/meter would decrease. If you wanted to just move it horizontally, then the correct graph to do that on would be the joules/Min vs meters/Min. If the Y axis has joules/Meter, then increasing your speed has to decrease the joules/Meter. This makes the moonwalkers way more efficient than what this analysis shows.
This seems like it would be a really cool way to make an instant treadmill, by counteracting your foreward momentum and keeping you in place. It could also see some really cool uses in the vr industry this way.
There's also the issue that you're fighting against the acceleration of the shoes themselves when you push forward, which probably adds a bit to your energy expenditure as well.
I love it when actual math and research is done to irrefutably prove that something is utterly useless. Thank you!
We should probably also take into account the extra work certain muscles are doing to lift those heavy shoes, that otherwise wouldn’t get as much exercise during normal walking. It could be argued you might feel less tired after extended use of the shoes simply from building the specific muscles required to lift them over time.
He did...Did you even watch the video?
@@EffectualPoet No, he addressed a separate point. Not this one specifically. He addressed the fact that holding dead weight with an engaged muscle expends energy, which is not the same point I am making.
Kinda cool you went to CES, hope to see more of your take on it
Whenever I see you in your videos, my mind always connects you with the guy who says "... but steel is heavier than feathers".
Given that around 40% of adults are obese in the US, they should be thinking of ways to make people burn more calories rather than less. Maybe make them 20lbs each, and get rid of the motors?
Great video!!!
When I was in High School I had a math teacher who was extremely short and tiny. She was in the 4'??" range. One day my friends were noticing as we walked down the hall with her to a meeting that her legs and feet were moving at a pace about 2x the speed of ours, and she was leading the pace. It's true we all have a natural moving pace. I don't know if she re-trained herself to walk faster but we were all quite impressed with how she seemed to move like lightening. Scaled up, we couldn't keep up with her pace of leg movement for long. We really are all different.
I liked the explanation and graphs to visualize it easier. Thx you I learned something new. And I think I wouldn't wear the shoes until there is a benefit of at least 15-30% energy saving.
Maybe if the shoes get better with the weight it could be used in manufacture buildings, so operators could fast arrive in different places. Especially when you move fast it is less consuming energy then if you move slower.
Bro scientifically roasted the company
ActionLabguy: 6:57
Newton: No way he called my physics basic
Another point is, apparently walking with these things sounds like you're walking on legos.
This explains why I get so tired shopping with my wife!
I would say a bit lighter and maybe faster to make it optimal or beneficial.
These needed to be around back when I was in high school and everyone in the hallways walked too damn slow!
Another thing I think is worth considering here is based on personal preference. Do you prefer to move faster with less resistance or slower with more? Take bike gears for example. Some people prefer to rotate the pedals more on a lower gear where people like myself prefer the opposite. We might both be traveling at the same speed but the difference lies in how we prefer to use our muscles to get there. For people like myself I feel like these shoes would be great because they wouldn't feel as cumbersome to us. I'd much prefer to move the extra weight than have to move faster.
The makers of the moonwalker shoes didn't realize they were dealing with a smooth criminal.
When I was a kid the sidewalk on the way home from school was so dirty I figured out how to walk like this. Sliding on the tiny pebbles half way home
1:48 I wish I knew about this when I was a kid. My mom would always comment about how I was walking too fast (and that I needed to stop walking so fast). And my reply would always be “This is just my natural walking speed.” But of course she would never accept that explanation. 😂
damn the efficiency, I want to wear them for the fashion
The Moonwalkers feel like a highdea that was taken seriously....
Small hiccup and please do tell me if I'm missing something but why did you calculate the joules per step by accelerating the weight of the moon shoe to 7 mph? Isn't the moon shoe still on the ground generating some of that acceleration? Approaching half of it, even?
My preferred walking speed changes when i am suffering from a joint flare up. When my ankles and elbows aren't inflamed, i walk a lot smoother and faster. Shin splints affect my speed too. I would not like the added weight of these shoes - when that changes, i would be interested.
It would be interesting if they built in a roller skate/neutral function to allow rolling when it is preferred.
Also you may need to consider that the additional height changes your center of balance which might increase energy needed to walk. Overall these seem silly to me, but who knows, maybe if they get super light and smaller wheels (lower to ground).
Double the walking speed and only 25% bump in energy expended, fascinating! But what about changing the walk stride into a jog stride (not run, but jog) - and then compare the energy expended in the slowest jog compared to the fastest walk... would love to see that!
now i understand a lot about why i get tired, i normally walk faster than most people around me,so ,me slowing down to walk along friends was making me more tired
I think it looks cool which justifies it. Maybe if they leaned into it and added responsive led with each step. And what would it do if you counter the foots movement? Would you fall? Could it keep you stationary or even go backwards? Might look cool.
2:00 No, it's because he doesn't like walking with me; he told me. 😅
Was the guy at 1:20 afraid you would just walk off and steal them? LOL
How does the energy compare when you walk slightly uphill or downhill?
Perfect for stealth assassin missions 😁😁
Nice , now I can walk like the vampires of Twilight
Good analysis.
I could physically feel my attention being split between staring at the hair and concentrating on the video
@The Action Lab do a video between roller blading vs walking .
Assuming a lot of the weight is battery, would it help to put the batteries on your hips or back?
I still love these & would use them! However! I would like them to turn it into an actual shoe as a fully put together piece instead of strapping it around my shoe. They could use cup joints that wrap around dimpled spheres that allow for it to use basic coils & air pressure (not much but it helps the total repulsive force of the coil to coil through a "wireless like" charging moment) to help a shock like system that still has attractive forces to move the spheres. Using an axle motor in the center with a 2 sodium ion pack and wrap around ankle + top sodium ion pack of batteries would be better to reduce the total weight cost of the design as well. The cup socket just needs to go over the sphere with a basic flexible brush like material to help it seal & be held in place. 4 spheres are easy enough because the coils and magnets of the sphere just need to be placed in a wiffle ball bat like sphere while being sintered together easily & cheaply. As a proof of concept its pretty nice, but the wheels will fail, replaceable components are annoying if not easily done and bought, and the battery size is annoying since its all place low and not a part of the foot. This hurts bio-mechanics, the weight is being re-accelerated twice, after placing the foot down there is a moment of re-acceleration because the relative view of one side of the body to the other and the transfer of force "shock wave" through the body needs to happen. Boiled down it means it should actually use a little more than twice the total energy because of one side trying to twist. Think of a sudden lack of grip on ice on one side of your body, the total number of muscle groups used quickly to try and balance, then you end up over correcting while trying to not fall. Its similar, but not the same. This time the lifting of the foot is twice as hard and requires more muscle groups to stay balanced, on top of trying to slow down as well. We use a forward to out (diagonal) approach of roller blades for a reason, the wheels become something that no longer roll. They most likely are using the same basic programming that those old segways & 2 wheeled fire bombs from china use to balanced and sense tilting movement to slow down and accelerate. which means there are no regenerative breaking moments, they have to use high polling rates which decrease efficiencies, and they aren't taking advantage of movement changes of our natural gaits to take advantage of the rotations of the wheels.
I.E. the dimpled spheres increase the ability to rub internally to help break during stopping, but with a little bit of air trapped in to increase the smoothness of that. You can also unscrew, pop them out, slide something, whatever version you want and easily replace the wheels and clean out the cup. Same thing with reapplying tread on the wheels, change the magnets and coils, even further add axles to the wheels if you wanted to hold them in place in the cup while allowing for rotation and suspension if wanted. A central main big boy axial flux motor that uses a cvt like direct to those axles or a version of a roller direct contact means they have torque vectoring and a larger more efficient torque curve that uses less electricity and increases regenerative breaking potential all while being something that could be taken off by pushing a button and unlatching/sliding it off as a full piece to the shoe. Much easier to manufacture, easier to replace and bad or simply wore out until needed to be replaced parts, cheaper now while having it be more consistent for the weight around the foot making it outright nicer to wear overall and getting different styles to choose from.
basically, great concept but it needs to be reworked so it takes less energy and make better power overall while also being easier to maintain and used. Still, like I wrote earlier, I would use them from the start though.
Air Gear manga coming to life!
This reminds me of the people movers at airports.
I can't even walk down the stairs after leg day, and physics says there was "0 work done" now I know why 😂
This might be useful for movie shooting for scenes like captain America running faster than an regular humans