LEWISTON – A 45-year-old shoe company thinks it can save lives by embedding tiny pieces of technology in the boots it makes for miners.

And it just got $10,000 to prove it.

Falcon Performance Footwear in Lewiston has received a seed grant from the Maine Technology Institute to help the company determine whether there’s a market for miners’ footwear equipped with radio frequency identification circuits – small, easily trackable sensors – and whether it would be feasible for Falcon to produce such boots.

The company expects the research to take three to six months. After that, it could produce a prototype.

Radio frequency identification circuits have been used for years, often in distribution centers and stores to track inventory as it moves out the door. When placed in boots, the tiny sensors could track miners as they move through mines. In a mine collapse or other emergency, rescuers would immediately know how many miners were trapped and where they were located.

Falcon President Carl Spang believes there’s a market for the boots with sensors. In 2006, federal law required mines to create emergency response plans that included ways to electronically track miners in case of an accident.

Spang would like to move quickly on Falcon’s product. The grant, he said, would help the company do that.

“I have a feeling we’re chasing the clock,” Spang said. “This is not new technology, so you have to move pretty quickly to get established in the market.”

The Maine Technology Initiative is a state-funded, nonprofit organization created to help Maine companies develop new technology-based products and services. It received 33 applications for its most recent round of competitive seed grants. Fourteen companies received money.

Grant judges liked the fact that Falcon was an established business trying to do something innovative.

“We really applaud efforts that companies that are traditional businesses look for ways to adapt themselves to the 21st century and new market opportunities,” said Joe Migliaccio, manager of business innovation programs.

Falcon now makes boots for firefighters and miners, but without the sensors.