How to Be a Stinkin' Chess Cheat - Sockfish

[James Stanley] likes chess, is not very good at it, and has questionable scruples. At least that's the setup to build Sockfish, a shoe-to-Pi interface to let you cheat at chess. We're pretty sure only the first point is true, but the build is still impressive. It's a pair of 3D-printed shoe inserts, with two pressure-sensitive inlets on each insert, coupled with a vibration motor in each. Tap your opponent's moves during the game, and the Stockfish software will send you instructions. Just follow the instructions and you too can become a chess master.

In practice, things got a bit awry, as poking around the encoded motion data with the feet isn't the easiest task, and discerning subtle tickling on the toes is error-prone at best. [James] arranged a match against an unsuspecting friend (in the name of science) and managed to big finger (big toe?) entries on both games, leading Sockfish to ask him to make illegal movements.

It seemed like too much cheating, even for [James], so he played the rest of each game with his own abilities, winning one of the two. Once the deed was done, our anti-hero happily took off his shoes to show off his gadgets. After some debate, they concluded that the device could "discredit the game" if used for greater harm. Of course [James] is already working on an improved version.

Thanks to [Abe Tusk] for the tip!