For this project, I was interested in integrating wearable LEDs into a project. Since I already had several pairs of Converse All-Stars, I thought it might be a good opportunity to build something I might wear. There is a great tutorial on Adafruit that I started off with, and then made software and hardware modifications. At the time, cheap pressure/acceleration sensors were hard to come by, so making a thin piece of velostat worked out pretty well, although it required some tweaking to get a good calibration value for what to consider a step and not. I did one better and created a visualization on the outside of the shoe that would let you know exactly how much pressure was being sensed and show you where the trim points were. Each time the shoe was turned on, you take a few steps and it picks up some good trim values based on what weight is detected for min/max, which worked out fairly reliably.
The arduino is hidden in between the inner and outer liner of the shoe. The opposite side holds a battery pack, and then the wires are run between the two. I opted for NiMH batteries as opposed to lithium ion, just for safety on something that is strapped against my body and would be difficult to take off quickly if an issue were to occur.
I also added a selector button to the Arduino, so that tapping the side of the shoe with the other foot would change between visualization programs, so you could get alternative effects. In a later update, I changed this to an RF remote control, similar to a garage door opener. This let me keep a keychain in my pocket and switch between programs on both shoes at once.
