Lechal, a pair of beautiful fiery red sneakers was the high spot at the Techkriti 2015 in Kanpur, India. The pair of sneakers is the world’s first interactive haptic footwear and actually stole the show with its features and specifications. Techkriti is the technical and entrepreneurial festival held at IIT Kanpur every year and Gaurav Duggal, an engineer at Ducere Technologies showcased this first ever wearable technology from India. Lechal is pronounced lay-ch-al, meaning “take me there” in Hindi, the national language of India. 
Lechal – Wearable Footwear
Lechal, the beautiful red-colored sneakers are designed especially for the blind people and can help them in navigation when connected to the Smartphone. These sneakers are GPS enabled and give the directions to blind people. Users can connect these sneakers with their Smartphone via Bluetooth version 4.0 and feed the information about the place they want to go. Lechal shoes are embedded with detachable Bluetooth trans-receivers and start vibrating when the user takes a wrong direction. The sneakers also work as a fitness machine which can count the calories burnt, distance travelled and number of steps taken.
Not just physically challenged people, but others can also wear and use these sneakers as their navigational tool. To be specific, the technology is embedded in the insoles and if you are not interested in buying the sneakers, you can buy just the insoles and use the technology.
Talking about this brilliant invention, designer Guarav Duggal said in one of his interviews, “We have a special app which the user has to download on the smartphone. The Bluetooth trans-receiver connected to the app directs the person wearing the footwear the direction whether to take a right turn or a left”.
Ducere Technologies is a company based in Hyderabad and is reportedly world’s first company to offer such a product. Anirudh Sharma, an alumnus of MIT University in the US and Krispian Lawrence, pass out from Michigan University US are the masterminds behind the company and the brilliant invention.
These amazing sneakers Lechal comes with a price tag of $150 and the first pre-order will be given sometime in the month of May this year.
Watch this video to know more about how the Lechal Sneakers work.
