This is one of those ideas which present themselves perfectly in hindsight.

Nike+ was the shoe which knew where you had been, invert that principle and you’re lead to the shoe which knows where you are going.

Certainly a valid creative catalyst is inverting existing problems.

Strongly agree. I like the simplicity with which George explained this!

A white cane also alerts people in the vicinity - I wonder what the designer's thoughts are on this aspect of the problem. When I saw (what I assume are) the proximity detector LEDs on the front of the shoe, it made me think about some kind of flashing (visible) light-based solution.

how do you deal with gps errors / brownian noise?

I guess this is the reason why they have started the tests with Bangalore Blind school.