In a patent application that was published on January 24, 2013, Apple attempts to patent a new smart shoe that is capable of detecting when the shoe has reached a critical wear level. A shoe that has reached this critical wear level may cause damage to the wearer’s feet, legs, and back. Apple’s patent application consists of a sensor embedded with the shoe (either at the heel or throughout the bottom sole), a processor, and an alarm to notify an individual of the shoe’s wear level.

The sensors may include motion detectors and a “body bar” to detect and measure weight and resistance. The processor will analyze the information provided by the sensors and generate a unit of time which would tell the user how much time is left in the shoe. The alarm or indicator may be connected to a watch or other device worn by the user.

The published patent application can be found here.