I-m-Walk - Interactive Multimedia Walking-aware System

i-m-Walk is a mobile application that uses pressure sensors in shoes to visualize phases of footsteps. Through a mobile device, it will raise the awareness for the user to improve his walking behaviour. As an example application in slow technology, we use i-m-Walk to help beginners to learn “walking meditation,” a type of meditation where users aim to be as slow as possible in taking pace, and to land every footstep with toes first. In our experiment, we asked 30 participants to learn walking meditation over a period of 5 days; the experimental group used i-m-Walk from day 2 to day 4, and the control group did not use it. The results showed that i-m-Walk could effectively assist beginners in slowing down the walking speed and while decreasing the incorrect rate of pacing during walking meditation. To conclude, this study may serve as a key in providing a mechanism to assist users to better understand his pacing and walking habits. In the future, i-m-Walk could be used in other applications, such as walking rehabilitation.