At the end of Back to the Future, Doc Brown and Marty McFly use their time-traveling DeLorean to race off to the mysterious world of October 21, 2015. Unless things change drastically over the next five years, it doesn't look like we're headed for the neon-colored world portrayed in the second film (perhaps McFly messed up history) but it looks like we'll at least have the awesome sneakers. Blake Bevin has posted instructions on how to make a pair of McFly's automatic-lacing Nike sneaks on the Instructables website. He used an Arduino microcontroller which looks a little less than futuristic clamped to the sneaker's heel, but certainly gets the job done. With Gizmodo's post, the video went viral yesterday. As Bevin says on Instructables:
"Operation is quite simple -- step into the shoe and a force sensor reads the pressure of your foot and activates two servo motors, which apply tension to the laces, tightening the shoe."
The shoes are great, but, given the choice, a hoverboard would be that much cooler. Unless, you're racing on water, of course. Related content: Discoblog: Back to The Future: The First Green Flying Car Is Ready For Takeoff Discoblog: Circuit Board Chic: Motherboards Recycled Into Shoes & Underwear Discoblog: Bizarre New Treadmill-Bike Lets Gym Rats See the Outside World Discoblog: Is the Force With Your iPhone? Find Out With the Lightsaber Duel App
