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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"The United States Advanced Battery Consortium has a budget of $260 million dollars focused on the development of new battery technologies such as Lithium-Iron Disulfide, Sodium-Sulfer, Lithium-Polymer, and Lithium-Iron."
There's even batteries you can print out on paper: Power Paper
From the article:
"And unlike conventional battery electrolytes, the Power Paper creation is environmentally safe and doesn't require a hard metal case typical in ordinary dry-cell batteries."
I wonder if Polaroid might go after them? The "Polapulse" technology has been around for quite a while, and this stuff looks very similar to it from what I can read in that article.
But, he was on the Mark III version of his invention that would do umpdedump acres a day. At that point he had spent over $300,000 in development costs (this was in 1968-real money then). When I researched the acreage of asparagus versus his stated capacity, there was a market for about six machines on the whole West Coast.
Hardly the market to spend so much in development, support marketing costs, etc.
But, being the pleasant and aimiable guy that I am, I went to the first field trial of Mark III and watched for an hour as it chopped,destroyed and made mush of a couple acres of expensive veggies.
His only comment was that the Mark IV would perform better!
So, it is a $3,000 walker. Still very limited use having little or no societal impact.
Yes, it consumes energy in keeping you constantly balanced. It seems that it corrects any overbalancing before it goes too far, requiring lots of torque to correct. I'm sure the 15 miles is a straight line number. Include bad balance, rough terrain and hills, and it will probably go down.
Since it appears to be for local commuting where recharging is always easily available, battery life probably won't be a problem. I'd expect to see longer life fuel cell or micro-turbine powered versions in the future if battery life starts to be a problem.
"In addition to be inefficient, it will also be dangerous."
First time users step on and ride and don't fall off with basically no instructions except for "do it." It sounds much safer than a bicycle.
My only worry is the weight, since there will be places you'll want or need to pick it up and carry it.
Huh? You can't tip over something with three (non-colinear) wheels, short of bodily lifting it off the ground.
$300,000 of OPM, I presume? :)
(If I ever do come up with something I'm confident will work, I'll build a prototype using scrap metal, used/surplus motors, some homebrew sensors, a "BASIC Stamp" controller, and roll my own firmware. It shouldn't cost me more than a couple hundred bucks, and I'll be using my own money.)
So the Old Professer is into the new school of spouting off about things which he was too lazy or thought too beneath himself to research. :) Electric motors move the Segway, not rocking. I realize that neither of my explanations may be right as to why you got it wrong. So I'll let you tell us why you got it wrong.
Until all that asparagus drives the price through the floor.
That should sew up the French market.
Add to this list, a scooter that doesn't let you fall off.
Big deal.
That's the sound of a lead balloon going over, which is all that this device amounts to. Come to think of it...*SPLUD* is the same sound that some fatso's rump is going to make on the pavement once this thing's battery cuts out.
LOL What do you suppose he'd say? I seriously doubt that after seeing a Segway and then reading how it works on the Segway Web site he would even bother looking at the patents. That is, unless he was dishonest and wanted to steal from the Segway patent.
Yep, those innovators all a bunch of thieves and lowlifes. <\sarcasm>
Correct. Unless you're moving. (And BTW, the ability to move is generally considered to be a major "plus" for a vehicle.)
Then, acceleration, deceleration, and turning become a question of when it will fall over, not if. Give it enough sideways (or forward or reverse) force, and it will fall over, guaranteed.
Not so with a two-wheel device, presuming adequate tire traction. And the traction issue is one more thing that favors a two-wheeled vehicle, but mitigates against a more-than-two wheeled vehicle -- the better the traction, the less force it will take to topple it.
A two-wheeled vehicle has greater stability because its effective center of gravity is below ground level.
This scooter has the same type stability as a motorcycle or bicycle, but it has it in in the linear aspect rather than while turning.
It can't fall over when it stops, because the way it stops is by "banking" to the rear, and digging in with the tires. The harder it stops, the more it "banks". If you're riding it, and execute a hard stop, you'll lean back, but if you close your eyes, you'll feel like you're in a "down elevator" that's coming to a stop. You'll feel increased weight on the bottoms of your feet, but nothing pushing you either forward or backard. As it slows down, it'll gradually decrease the back-leaning angle, until it comes to rest with you standing straight up.
Where it won't have a whole lot of stability is in high-speed turns. That's because it can't lean/bank into a turn, due to its wheels being parallel.
If he comes out with a one-wheel version, it'll be highly maneuverable, because in addition to leaning into starts and stops, it'll be able to lean into a turn, so you won't have to slow down to turn. You'll lose low speed maneuverability, but what you gain in high speed handling will be impressive. (And I expect it's just a matter of time before he comes out with a one-wheel version, since he shows it in his patent filings.)
I don't think you understand asparagus farming, or Clintonian politics.
First, there won't be any more asparagus harvested with an automated picker than there is when it's harvested by migrants. The crowns don't know or care who or what is picking the spears. The picking starts in the spring, and continues for six weeks. The same amount of asparagus will be harvested using either technique.
Right now, the price is "through the floor", but it has nothing to do with the quantity of asparagus. The price is "through the floor" because NAFTA and Clinton created a situation where third world & Chinese asparagus -- produced at by people who work for slave wages and/or by operations that are subsidized by their governments -- are coming into the USA unimpeded, and selling below the cost of production for American farmers.
I don't know if you're a "free market/Libertarian" sort, and in any event I am not inclined to get into a urinating match over that topic. Suffice it to say that my position is that if we allow our country to fall into a state in which it is unable to feed itself, because cheap foreign imported agriculture has driven American farmers off the land, we are basically finished as a nation, because it's just a question of time before one or more of those other countries decides to blackmail us, at which point we either obey, or starve. And apart from that, I think it's plain stupid to export American jobs and dollars to other countries, with the only domestic "benefit" being a few fat-walleted brokers and traders who manage to skim some money off the top as it's making its way to China.
"That's the sound of a lead balloon going over, which is all that this device amounts to. Come to think of it...*SPLUD* is the same sound that some fatso's rump is going to make on the pavement once this thing's battery cuts out."
You seem to be personally vested in needing to have this product fail. As I said earlier, I find it curious that so many people are so bitter about this. It's really remarkable to watch people get so bent out of shape. This goes way beyond the "Get a horse!" contingent. This is like "Get a horse and FOAD, MF!" Too strange for words.
Me, I'd gladly use one if I could get my hands on it. I don't know what kind of health you have, but mine is rotten, and I gotta tell you that sitting around the house -- because your bones and heart don't lend themselves to walking for more than a few feet -- kinda gets old after a while. And yeah, I can ride in a car. Isn't that special. I can't walk down the road to my pond, I can't do a lot of things that other people take for granted, and frankly, I don't give a R'sA over someone's idea that a device that could make my life a whole lot better is a joke.
Kamen is too used to selling medical devices where price is no object. Three grand will buy a nice used motorcycle.
This isn't directed at you specifically, rather, at a whole segment of people. I'm dismayed that so many people don't understand basic research and development, economies of scale and recouping investment. Research and development cost money (in the red). A high starting price is meant to recoup the cost as quickly as feasibly possible (to get into the black). That's exactly why the latest, greatest, fastest CPUs (central processing unit) in PCs (personal computer) cost so much more than it's predecessor. Anybody that has done research before buying their second computer should know that. As demand increases to a certain level, economies of scale are met and the price comes down.
Plus, there's technology advances that give the item more value while keeping the same price. PCs are excellent examples of that. The computer power that a thousand dollars buys today cost a million dollars fifteen years ago.
VCRs entered the market at about a thousand dollars. In six years they were selling for around $250 and the technology had improved. Ditto for pocket calculators and Internet access. The cost for Internet access has only dropped a little but in the past eight years the modem speed has quadrupled. Four times more for the same amount of money. When we consider broad band, the price has doubled while the bandwidth has increased two-hundred fold.
I agree. Hmm. Maybe Segway (synonymous with segue) is that its continuation will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. IOW, maybe people will wake up and see that a bloated government destroys more values than it produces.
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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)