Bootstrapper Knows Your Shoes

Forget the fingerprint! Researchers are now developing a way to identify you by your shoes.  The Bootstrapper project uses cameras placed below tables to link a user to her or his activity on a shared computer by the shoes she or he is wearing.

A student using Bootstrapper

The Bootstrapper helps companies tie the laces between consumer information and the individual consumer by linking shoes to an account that keeps track of a person's preferences and actions.

Bootstrapper in action

Bootstrapper takes footage captured from cameras at foot-level to recognize unmistakable laces, colors, stitching, logos and other distinct features of shoes, easily identifying and tracking multiple users of interactive tabletop computers.

Students testing Bootstrapper's multiple-user function

Patrick Baudisch, a computer science professor at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, and two of his grad students, Christian Holz and Stephan Richter, established Bootstrapper to eliminate the problem of differentiating multiple consumers using one touch screen. When people walk up to the tabletop computer, Bootstrapper matches hands and arms aligned with the recognized shoes, making it easier for different people to store their preferences and walk away. As the user returns, her bright pink suede Steve Madden almond-toe pumps are instantly distinguished and logged into the user's specific account. So far, this new technology recognizes users with 89% accuracy.

Professor monitoring student progress

After identification is made, Bootstrapper can provide suggested products based on pauses users take to browse certain objects onscreen. Baudisch hopes Bootstrapper will be used in places like department stores to suggest sales with digital advertising by tracking where a consumer paused to look at a black leather bags or designer shoes.

PHOTO COURTESY: Stephan Richter