The AI-powered TikTok famous ‘moonwalker’ can be strapped to a shoe and reach walking speeds of up to 11 km/h.
Imagine being able to easily go grocery shopping or walk your dog as fast as you could on a moving walkway.
American startup Shift Robotics has invented a device designed to attach to your shoes and increase your walking speed by up to 250 percent.
That’s right, you could be walking at a maximum speed of 11 km/h, which is about three times faster than normal.
“Moonwalker” looks like a pair of skates, but it’s not bohemian, so you won’t lose your balance.
Thanks to machine learning algorithms, it only moves when you move it. Stop when you need to, lock up and down stairs, and automatically adjust your speed when going downhill.
Suppose you are about to hop on a bus. Simply lift your right heel back to the ground and the electronic brake locks the wheels perfectly.
To return to walking at a running pace, exit this “lock mode” by lifting your right heel into the air and rotating clockwise while keeping your toes on the ground.
shared shoe video on TikTok It went viral earlier this year and has amassed 24.9 million views to date.
“It enhances gait, not replaces it.”
The company’s founder and CEO, Xunjie Zhang, said the idea for the invention came to him after he was almost hit by a scooter on his commute. Then he asked himself why he, like so many others, had not walked to work.
“Many people do not rely on walking. crowdfunding page.
The problem, researchers say, is that they walk too slowly and are inefficient. “So we made it our mission to enhance walking rather than replace it.”
With a team of jet propulsion engineers, roboticists and sneaker designers at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, Zhang has spent the past five years devising the world’s fastest shoe “relying on the body’s own engineering.”
According to Shift Robotics, unlike skating, moonwalkers don’t require any skill to learn, just walking. The company says the AI adapts to each user’s gait, and it takes less than 10 steps for the algorithm to learn a user’s walking pattern.
“With each step, a conveyor belt moves under your feet, like the moving sidewalks you see at airports,” Chan says. told an insider. “The faster you walk, the faster your shoes will walk with you.”
“No free-roaming” is one of the moonwalker’s biggest safety features, he added, adding that “unless you’re walking, it’s completely locked.” The shoes are secured with magnetic buckles and can be removed if the device malfunctions.
The team launched Moonwalkers on Kickstarter in October 2022 and has since raised around $330,000 (€303,600). According to insiders, the company has received more than 2,000 orders as of May 2023.
The shoes were tested by people aged 15 to over 60, and most were able to walk in the shoes “pretty well” within 10 to 15 minutes of putting the laces on, Zhang said, according to the publication. told to
The Moonwalker is currently only available in the US and costs $1,399 (€1,287) a pair.
The high price garnered ironic comments on social media.
“Roller skating so expensive?” one TikTok user wrote about the viral TikTok video. Another comment read, “This would never be possible on the beat sidewalks in my city.”
For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
