ABCNEWS' Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer joined inventor Dean Kamen for a ride on his new invention — the Segway Human Transporter. (ABCNEWS.com)
Posted on 12/03/2001 4:17:56 PM PST by spycatcher
ABCNEWS' Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer joined inventor Dean Kamen for a ride on his new invention — the Segway Human Transporter. (ABCNEWS.com)
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'IT' Gets Around
Mysterious Invention Moves People  N E W Y O R K, Dec. 3
— After nearly a year of speculation, Dean Kamen's mysterious machine — IT — was revealed on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. |
While Kamen's invention, the Segway Human Transporter, does move people, it doesn't leave the ground — and it's powered by a battery. The inventor revealed his two-wheeled personal transportation device, intended for a single standing rider, today on Good Morning America. "This is the world's first self-balancing human transporter," Kamen said. "You stand on this Segway Human Transporter and you think forward and then you go forward. If you think backward, you go backward." The transporter, which can go up to 12 miles an hour, looks more like a lawn mower than a scooter and has no brakes. It is designed to mimic the human body's ability to maintain its balance; riders control the speed and direction of the device simply by shifting their weight and using a manual turning mechanism on one of the handlebars. "All of the knowledge that went into knowing how to walk is transferred to this machine," Kamen said. "When you stand on this machine, it kind of walks for you. It just does it smoothly and gracefully." The 65-pound device, also known by its former code name, "Ginger," looks simple, but its inner workings are intricate. Tilt sensors monitor the rider's center of gravity more than 100 times a second, and are able to signal both the direction and the speed to the device's electric motor and wheels.
Kamen says the Segway can take its rider up to 15 miles on a six-hour charge from a regular wall socket. He bills it as an environmentally friendly alternative to cars, and expects that in the future the devices will replace the car in urban centers. The first models are expected to be available to consumers in about a year at a price of about $3,000, said Kamen. Source of Endless Speculation Kamen already has a series of high-profile inventions under his belt. He created a dialysis machine that is the size of a briefcase, a portable insulin pump and a wheelchair that climbs stairs, called iBot, which he had code-named "Fred." Word of IT first leaked out in January when the media learned that a publisher had paid a $250,000 advance for a book about a device by Kamen the editor said could transform our lives, our cities and our thinking. That sparked off a media frenzy — and the guessing game. But the high-powered innovators and thinkers Kamen showed his invention to — including technology heavyweights Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and Apple CEO Steve Jobs — remained tight-lipped. Bob Metcalf, a computer engineer who helped create the building blocks for the Internet, revealed a few details to ABCNEWS about Kamen's invention nearly a year before IT was revealed. "I've seen it, and it is… more important than pantyhose and it's more important than the Internet," said Metcalf in an interview in January. He said that on a scale of one to 10 — one being mundane and 10 being revolutionary — he would rank Kamen's invention "in the high nines." He implied that the device would contain a computer chip, that it may have to do with transportation, and that people would probably want to own more than one. Kamen, who kept his invention a secret in the face of mass speculation, said his silence was not part of a plan to build public interest. When information about his invention was leaked, he still had to file hundreds of patent claims. "We always work on our confidential projects confidentially," Kamen said. "Unfortunately, somebody in their excitement let the world know what we were working on a year ago and we weren't ready." The United States Postal Service and the National Park Service have plans to field test a number of the personal transportation devices next year. "We've got a quarter of a million letter carriers out on the street," said John Nolan, the deputy postmaster general, "and we've got the opportunity to increase efficiency reduce the wear and tear on their bodies and improve the environment all the same time." But will it transform lives, cities and even thinking, as first hyped in the media? Futurists who considered themselves skeptics were initially impressed. "This is a marvelous first device," said Paul Saffo, the director of the Institute for the Future. "It remains open to see if it's going to grow up and go out into the world at large, but it's clearly gotten far enough to be practical in places like warehouses and industrial campuses." There does seem to be a clear consensus: It is a bold attempt to not just reinvent the wheel but to reinvent the ways wheels can be used. ABCNEWS' Antonio Mora contributed to this report. |
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If "cities are built" around it, there won't be any subways to lug it onto. There'll be nice, flat-floored (taking care of the ground-surface issues people have raised), plexiglass-domed "tunnels" at ground level, and perhaps above, when necessary, sort of "pedestrian superhighways". Heated in the winter, air-conditioned in the summer (taking care of the "raincoat" questions I've seen raised). They'll link "complex" to "complex". Office complexes will be built like shopping malls -- lots of "inside space", so weather won't be an issue.
I don't know that it's gonna happen, but if it happens, it seems pretty obvious that that's how it'll happen.
I hear ya. I couldn't attract any fast-food clerks either. I had to settle for a schoolteacher.
But good luck to ya in finding that woman of your dreams. Perhaps burger-flippers won't be quite so turned-off by a guy on wheels?
I suspect the limiting factor is located in the pit of the stomach. I felt perfectly safe (even though I wasn't :)) riding down the road at 95 MPH on my motorcycle. I think I'd be shakin' in my boots going down the road at 95 MPH standing on a shoe-sized platform, holding onto a glorified joystick. Maybe if it had a rocket-assisted ejection pod... :)
I've seen pictures of them in his patent filings. Three wheels per side around a common "axle".
I read the Time report and it was okay but not real deep or imaginative. Plus they missed...
How's that?
Linear motion is to this thing what banking is to an airplane or motorcycle (or bicycle). How would you like to make high-speed turns on a bike that has three wheels, incapable of leaning into a turn? Or a fighter jet that can't bank, and can only make flat turns?
Two wheels provide more stability than three wheels. This is the first device to capitalize on that principle with two parallel wheels.
If he comes out with a one-wheel model (which he's already patented), it'll be incredibly stable in hard turns as well as forward/stop/reverse movement.
And I'm just suspicious enough to think it likely that the original device he showed off to Bezos and Jobs was in fact a one-wheel version. It would explain their off the charts enthusiasm, and the unanticipated delays in bringing it to market (it's got to be harder to iron the bugs out of something that's clearly much more complex to handle -- so I suspect that at a certain point, they tabled it, and decided to bring the two-wheel "lesser" model out first).
All in all, an interesting invention. We'll see if it lives up to the hype.
Think "fuel cells". Hydrogen and air in, water out. Range limited by tank size.
"This piece of metal and guano does 15 miles on an overnite charge? I can drive my Jeep 15 miles on the Diehard in it now (of course, the starter burns out)
"This has to be one of the most impractical, dumbest inventions I come across since I met a guy working on an asparagas harvester."
Translation: "Get a horse!"
Some things never change, I guess.
BTW, I've been working on (in my head) ideas for an asparagus harvester for several years now. If I can come with one that does "almost" as good as migrant pickers, I'll be retiring in luxury shortly thereafter. I live in "asparagus country", and let me tell you, it's been rough for the asparagus farmers the past few years, thanks to NAFTA and Clinton's Chinese friends. For the past two years, quite a few farmers didn't pick at all, they just mowed their crop down. It would have cost more to pick than they'd be able to sell it for.
It used to be that asparagus was the crop that lifted farmers out of "dirt poor" condition into very comfortable income. People with 40 acres lived like kings. All it took was sandy, well-drained soil and the right climate.
Those asparagus fields are still there, and if they can be economically harvested, a lot of farmers will be able to once again make decent livings.
A caster is by definition an uncontrolled, passive device.
Comparing this scooter to a caster is like ridiculing powered flight by asking Orville Wright if he'd ever heard of a falling apple.
Can I have yours? I've got a wrecked spine, neck, knee, ankles, and heart, and I fondly remember the days when I could walk anywhere I wanted without taking my life into my hands, hurting like hell, and ending up drenched in sweat after a hundred yards.
Now imagine stopping on a dime with that vehicle -- without getting skidmarks on your nose.
A three-point device is very stable -- when stationary. Abrupt starts or stops will get ya. Inertia and momentum are your enemy.
This vehicle uses those forces, rather than having to work around them.
You lean back to brake. You'll only feel downward force on the soles of your feet. Neat, eh?
Or, fuel cells.
Personally, I'm expecting the next major improvement to be a single-wheeled model, for greatly improved turn-handling at higher speeds.
You'll lose the ability to do an in-place 180, but you'll gain the ability to bank into turns.
PS: that's nothing that hasn't been heard before.
Get a grip, you sound like you're about ready to stroke out.
First off, the guy financed it himself, and only let in a few deep-pocketed investors who provided additional financing with their money. He turned down plenty of would-be investors who formed a conga line of money begging to land in his plate. So much for the idea that the taxpayers are paying for this.
Second, as to your complaint that the postal service will be buying it, what are you, Simon Legree? Do you think they'd be more efficient walking 20 miles out to the countryside instead of driving Jeeps? Sounds like your idea is that if the work isn't punishing -- and the more, the better -- then they workers need to be.. punished! Man, I'm glad I'm not working for you, sheesh!
Finally, as to your assertion that this isn't new technology because electric bicycles have been around for a hundred years, good grief you're a hoot! I can see you throwing rotten tomatoes at the Wright Brothers because kites and balloons have been around for a hundred years.
As to the venom, well, thanks for 'fessing up to it, but frankly, you couldn't hide it if you tried, so it's not like there's some major self-disclosure going on there.
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Is this "IT?" A two-wheeled, battery powered transportation device, known as the Segway Human Transporter, is displayed at a studio in New York on Dec. 3. (Peter Morgan/Reuters)