The shoe is definitely my favourite project of this year. I learned a lot form it and it actually turned out EXACTLY the way I wanted it too.

>The only difference is that I originally planned for it to have 4, not three motors, but their physically wasn’t room for the 4th. Also, I have to modify it to use an AC adaptor, as it drains the internal 9v battery in 35 minutes! Didn’t see that one coming…

Everyone loved it, even people in the halls.
Every time someone got closer they’d just say “wow it looks even better – Oh my god is that hair? It has Hair?!”

Or people would just think it was a real shoe. Which is an even better complement (an old shoe.. obviously, but a real one).

>> Learned a lot from the various stages of production.

// Mechanical, electrical, moulding, latex casting, pattern design, hair application.

What it does.
The shoe is stitched together with multiple pieces of Latex rubber cast out of moulds made from my own skin. It occasionally vibrates/pulsates, and twitches on the floor as if it were still alive.

How it works
The shoe uses a circuit to interpret signals sent out from an MP3 Player (Rio PMP 300), and converts them into on/off commands which it sends to the motors. The circuit works the same way the VU analyser on a stereo works (the lights that bounce up and down when a song plays). It uses a hv3915 chip but instead of outputting to lights, the signal is converted from a negative pulse, to a positive one, boosted and then sent to the motors. This gives the appearance of random movement with no need for programming as highs and lows in the song will determine when and how the shoe moves.