Wizard of Oz GPS shoes point you home

Image via Dominic Wilcox

There’s no place like home, and a London inventor has developed shoes that can take you there. Named after the famous line in Wizard of Oz, these GPS-enabled “No Place Like Home” shoes will point you in the right direction after just three clicks of your heels.

Dominic Wilcox wanted to bring that magical moment (embedded above in case you need a refresher) to life. He did so under a grant from the Global Footprint commission, by implanting a GPS unit in the left heel that’s activated when you click your heels together. After you’ve entered your destination into custom mapping software (presumably available for smart phones) and clicked your heels to start the GPS, LED lights in the shoe direct you where to go. The right shoe, receiving wireless communication from the left, shows your progress and helps you gauge how much further until you reach your destination.

Wilcox created a fully functional prototype for a design festival, but tells ABC News that given the interest they’ve generated he may try to produce more. But if these were commercially available, would they really be all that popular? From a practicality standpoint, it seems that using a phone GPS to navigate would be much easier than having to watch your feet wherever you go.