Shoe pads that monitor a person’s walking patterns, an automatic singing skills rating system and a nasal gadget that filters air breathed in through the nose are among the inventions being shown at an exhibition in Taipei.
The exhibition is on display until July 31 at the National Taipei University of Technology, featuring 20 patented inventions from the university’s faculty and students.
The shoe pads record the distribution of the center of gravity of their user and the stress they place on the shoes while walking. They were invented by mechanical engineering professor Huang Jung-tang (黃榮堂) and his team to allow users to monitor how they walk by using their mobile phones. The phone sounds an alarm to notify the user when they are in danger of tripping, the university said.
Huang said the shoes can be used to prevent elderly people from tripping and also to correct walking posture and inform the wearer of the types of shoes that would cause them to lose balance or apply force in the wrong way.
He estimated that the shoe pads could be available to consumers within half a year, at the earliest.
Also on display is an automatic karaoke system that rates singing skills by volume, rhythm and pitch. The developers of the singing system, led by electronic engineering professor Tsai Wei-ho (蔡偉和), said many traditional karaoke rating mechanisms rate singing skills only by volume, but they believe their system can produce “a more accurate rating.”
The exhibition also features a nasal object that aims to serve the same function as a filtering mask, blocking air-borne particles while ensuring an unobstructed flow of air into the nose.
The university said the product was a result of joint university-industry cooperation and is scheduled to be promoted in China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
According to Tseng Pai-yu, an official from the university’s Office of Research and Development, the university cooperated with companies to develop 478 technologies and products last year, the most of any public or technological university in Taiwan.
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