The video: Dominic Wilcox, an English shoemaker who was inspired by The Wizard of Oz, has come up with footwear that will guide you home "no matter where you are in the world" thanks to a GPS receiver embedded in the left heel of his "No Place like Home" shoes. (See a video below.) No magic is involved. First, you plug your destination into a computer program, then upload it to the shoes using a USB cable. When you're out and about, just click your heels three times, and internal sensors turn on the device. Using an antenna disguised in a smart strip of red fabric on the back of the left shoe, the fancy gray Oxfords — lined with red leather, in homage to Dorothy's ruby slippers — connect to GPS satellites. Then, red indicator lights on top of your toes point you in the right direction, and tally how far you've traveled.
The reaction: "Fashionably speaking, these shoes are sharp," says Nic Halverson at Discovery News. And, while I've never woken up "somewhere over the rainbow in a field of poppies, surrounded by a lion, a tin man, and a scarecrow," it's good to know that, if I'm wearing these shoes, "getting my bearings straight will be easy." For now, this is just "an art project, and there's only one pair," says Devin Coldeway at NBC News. Still, it's easy to imagine someone taking Wilcox's invention and running with it. Take a look:
