Wearable mobility — such a technology’s actually been around for years, in the form of rollerskates and rollerblades.
Rollerskates and rollerblades are popular bipedal ways of getting around, even if many people don’t have the time to manage them. Skates pretty much change up the typical transportation fare, letting people get more involved with getting around by, well, getting around. But, now even skates have been changed up—and it’s all thanks to RocketSkates.
Redefining wearable mobility – ACTON RocketSkates
Yes, rocketskates. ACTON’s RocketSkates are electric motorized skates that work much like rollerskates and rollerblades—the wearer controls them. There’s no remote controls or any other external controls. All the wearer needs to do is strap them on and let the shoes do the talking to each other as they cruise about the town.
The skates talk to each other, all thanks to the hardware included within each skate. Both skates include an on-board microprocessor that control two hub motors, and those components (among others) are controlled by a lithium-ion battery pack. The communication between each skate allows them to keep up the same speed and behavior.
Users can control RocketSkates by moving their weight forward to accelerate and moving their weight backward to slow down their movement. Although the skates dual-wheeled appearance looks bulky, it’s actually pretty stable, allowing users to easily move up to 12 mph when in use.
A small wheel placed at the heel is what helps provide more stability for users, as well as the braking mechanism that’s usable by pressing down with a heel.
ACTON RocketSkates are also smart skates—they connect to various mobile devices via the official ACTON App. This lets users monitor their performance while wearing the skates on a regular basis. The app tracks routes, battery status, skate diagnosis and even hosts games and social interactivity, allowing RocketSkaters to keep in touch.
ACTON RocketSkates — Humble beginnings
RocketSkates originally started as a school project, produced by Los Angeles based designer Peter Treadway.
The original project was a wearable transportation device, an exoskeleton that would ‘make people jump higher and run faster.’ Even though the initial project wasn’t feasible, Treadway eventually evolved the initial concept into the first generation RocketSkates. These heavier and bulkier skates were actually introduced to Kickstarter back in 2012, but was later redesigned into the version that came back to Kickstarter earlier this year.
Now a fully funded Kickstarter project, the lighter and technologically sound ACTON RocketSkates are expected to reach backers by next year.
