Footsteps

This is a brainstorm map of some of my thoughts on observing and measuring footsteps. It's a bit confusing because there are a few ideas within it and a lot of things that overlap. I first became interested in measuring these things because I lead a very different lifestyle when I'm home in Chicago compared to Ann Arbor. I also just spent 6 months in Europe, which was drastically different.

Basically I'm interested in footsteps and how they pertain to different lifestyles (where, how much, & why people walk the places they do). I want to use pedometers to measure the physical amount of walking occurring. The pedometers can measure steps, km/miles, and calories.

I thought about tying measurements to a specific pair of shoes, people who wear a certain type of shoes, or a pair of traveling shoes. If that is to be the case, the pedometer would take measurements when the shoes are worn. I also thought about just measuring footsteps on a daily or weekly basis irregardless of what pair of shoes the person is wearing. Another important aspect is including people who lead different lifestyles in different parts of the world. I am questioning why I would choose certain people and places.

I also started thinking about different possible outputs surrounding footsteps including (but not limited to): pictures from the perspective of feet/shoes, the sounds of shoes walking on different terrains, maps or coordinates of where shoes have been, the actual number output of steps for the day, scans of the treads of shoes as they wear down over time, images of the shoes, descriptions of smell and feel of wearing shoes, etc.

All of these different types of output made me start thinking about some kind of a user manual for the people who are doing measurements. I thought it might make it easier to keep track of the days and it would be more fun. I would also have something physical that I would get back once it's filled, which is nice. It could be some kind of a book that has different activities surrounding walking everyday. A part of those thoughts came from books like Wreck This Journal, which instructs the user to do things to and with the book.