“It will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy”, according to inventor Dean Kamen. With backers like Apple founder Steve Jobs, and other tech industry heavyweights — one of whom predicts Kamen will be wealthier than Microsoft founder Bill Gates within five years, Kamen isn’t the only one excited.
His simple-looking, gyroscope-stabilized, battery-powered scooter may revolutionize short-distance travel in cities. At least Kamen and his new company Segway, LLC hope so.
Several months ago, rumors began to circulate regarding Kamen’s latest invention (Kamen holds roughly 100 patents — including patents on some other ground breaking designs). A few individuals had seen the product, including Steve Jobs and other credible industry titans and, without revealing what “it” was, began to talk about how revolutionary “it” would be.
After months of secrecy, “it” turns out to be called the Segway Human Transporter.
The design is so simple, that it almost seems laughable, at first. When you examine what the Segway HT can do, and how it does it, it does seem revolutionary, however.
Able to travel up to 12 miles per hour, the Segway HT responds to the balance of the rider — lean forward to go forward, stand up straight to slow down and stop, lean back to go backwards. Since it only has a single axle, it balances with the use of gyroscopic action. The movement of the devise is said to be almost entirely intuitive with natural human movement. Even turning the devise side-to-side follows natural body twists, and uses computer algorithms to translate those twists into movement of the devise, just as the rider intends it. Pretty amazing stuff if it works.
Moreover, you can travel around a city taking up little more space than a human pedestrian, and use roughly ten cents of electricity to travel 15 miles.
According to a press release from the company, “The Segway HT’s footprint is narrower than the average adult’s shoulders, and its length is no greater than a large shoe.” It is quiet — emitting only “a barely audible harmonic hum.”
Kamen’s “vision” is to revolutionize travel within cities. Do human beings need a 4,000 pound automobile (no, as motorcycle enthusiasts, we know the answer to that one)? The 65 pound Segway HT travels roughly three times the speed a person can walk.
I know this is a motorcycle site, but the Segway HT is perhaps the most interesting development in two-wheeled transportation in quite some time. Here’s a link to Segway’s site.
