Ordering coffee with your feet

New research suggests variations in walking could be enough to tell augmented reality what you want.

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Media Relations

Imagine controlling apps with your feet while you walk. This concept is the focus of new research which explores using gait gestures – intentional variations in how you walk – as controls for augmented reality (AR) devices.

“There’s a long history of using feet to control machines. For example, the pedals on the car, but very little research has been done into using the way we walk as an input for a device,” said Ching-Yi Tsai, the lead author on the study and a former visiting scholar in the University of Waterloo David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science.

The idea emerged during the pandemic when Waterloo professor of computer science Daniel Vogel, frustrated by having to stop and use his phone with cold fingers while walking to get coffee, wondered if there could be a way to place orders without pausing. This led to a study where volunteers tested 22 different foot motions, rating them on ease of movement, compatibility with walking, and social acceptability.

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