Opinion Look who’s walking

If one of the great joys of taking the pedestrian route is the romance of stumbling upon the unexpected, the spread of smartphones and development of mapping applications have meant that a curious explorer has to make a determined effort to get lost. If an Indian startup has its way, our shoes will soon become accessories to the conspiracy to keep us from meandering down narrow alleyways or crummy lanes to uncover wonderlands. Ducere Technologies’ “Lechal” will launch in September and sync with Google Maps, vibrating to tell users when and where to turn to reach their destinations — without having any unmapped adventures along the way.

Lechal will be the latest in a line of so-called wearables, a category that comprises everything from watches to hoodies. One of the buzziest trends in the technology industry, wearables are focused for the most part on fitness and health solutions. But Lechal, which too is marketing itself as a more accurate collector of, for instance, miles walked data than your standard FitBit or Jawbone, also exemplifies another trendy technology idea, the internet of things (IoT), and the reasons why it is sometimes a punchline.

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In the IoT, everyday objects can essentially “talk” to each other over a network without needing human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. So your smart car will be able to tell your smart driveway that you’re about to reach your smart home, which will then smartly order your smart refrigerator to pour you a glass of hopefully regular water. It’s all very futuristic but, beyond the cool factor, adds little value to daily life. Yet. No matter. The internet of very silly things already includes sensor-equipped diapers, yoga mats and cups that will identify what you put in it (“Tooth-rotting soda!” it won’t say). No doubt the IoT will eventually become an inescapable part of modern life, just like the smartphone. That day, though, is not today.