This article was taken from the January 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Inventor Anirudh Sharma wants to make computer interfaces more physical. Among the 27-year-old's creations: shoes that help the visually impaired navigate using haptic feedback and Google Maps. "It started as a tinkering project," says Sharma, a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab. "We used very simple Nokia phones with a basic microprocessor in the shoe." That was in 2011: the finished Lechal shoes, which pair with an Android smartphone and use Google Maps to navigate, retail for $150 (£95).
Sharma has also created the Glassified, a concept ruler for designers and architects with a transparent LCD display (it can calculate measurements and physics on the fly); and a physical interface for computerised numerical milling machines (he has a patent on that last one).
His latest homespun invention, the Kaala printer, turns soot from pollution into black ink by combining it with alcohol and oils. It's at a very early stage, but Sharma hopes that the technology will help the environment in India's cities (and cut the cost of ink cartridges).
He also helps run the MIT Media Lab's India Initiative, which helps spread the inventor's spirit among students on the subcontinent. "We take them through the process of invention from ideation to creation," he says. "It's about saying: hey, what do you think we can change today?"
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
