One of the bigger surprises at this year’s PAX Prime was my meeting with the Boogio team, specifically Jose Torres and Nate Shortsleeve, the Co-Founder/CEO and Lead Designer, respectively. What is Boogio, you ask? The basic premise is to turn your feet into a controller. I immediately assumed this meant it was only meant for dance games, but I was mistaken. There is a lot of potential in this interesting device.
Developed by REFLX Labs, a Seattle based tech company, this wearable sensor was created with the intent to make it widely available for a number of applications. For example, it can monitor many different aspects of our weight and balance, serving as a sort of exercise trainer. But they have also considered implementation of Boogio with such things as Oculus VR tech. What better way to immerse oneself than to combine visual input with instant physical reaction?
But I’m a little ahead of myself. Many of you are probably wondering exactly how Boogio works? Utilizing tech that has been in the military industry complex for years, they are able to translate it into something personal and unique. By using advanced sensors that are currently placed on the bottom of your shows, Boogio is able to translate a wealth of information to many devices, as shown in the picture above. It sounds basic, but this is really unique and well developed tech, and it’s impressive how many metrics it can measure. Better yet, it can map movements to controller buttons, allowing you to play current games on it.
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The REFLX Labs team has grand designs for Boogio, seeing a possible early launch early next year. They want it to be your new controller, and look to the possibility of working with consoles to make your gaming experience even more unique. Though the best use I saw for Boogio is merged with Oculus tech, I am sure there are many more uses that can be found for such a device. They are in the process of streamlining the pads even further, so that instead of wearing them on the bottom of your feet, which leads to natural wear and tear, they might be attached the the sides of the shoe in a compact package.
Overall, I found Boogio to be an intriguing new device, and hope to see the success of it and REFLX Labs in the future. God knows the industry can use a breath of fresh air to innovate an industry that can get stuck in the same patterns.
