Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA29956 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 3 Dec 2001 14:17:23 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D16B@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Dean Kamen's machine: Segway aka Ginger aka It Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 14:12:59 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Speaking as one of the world's laziest people this sounds brilliant. i
suspect Tony Hawks will find ways to do tricks in it, but like the daleks
how dos it handle steps I wonder...
> ----------
> From: Wade T. Smith
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Monday, December 3, 2001 12:59 pm
> To: SKEPTIC-L; Memetics Discussion List
> Subject: Fwd: Dean Kamen's machine: Segway aka Ginger aka It
>
>
> ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
>
> http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,186660,00.html
>
> REINVENTING THE WHEEL
>
> Here "it" is: the inside story of the secret invention that so many
> are buzzing about. Could this thing really change the world?
>
> Sunday, Dec. 02, 2001
>
> "Come to me!"
>
> On a quiet Sunday morning in Silicon Valley, I am standing atop a
> machine code-named Ginger--a machine that may be the most eagerly
> awaited and wildly, if inadvertently, hyped high-tech product since
> the Apple Macintosh. Fifty feet away, Ginger's diminutive inventor,
> Dean Kamen, is offering instruction on how to use it, which in this
> case means waving his hands and barking out orders.
>
> "Just lean forward," Kamen commands, so I do, and instantly I start
> rolling across the concrete right at him.
>
> "Now, stop," Kamen says. How? This thing has no brakes. "Just think
> about stopping." Staring into the middle distance, I conjure an image
> of a red stop sign--and just like that, Ginger and I come to a halt.
>
> "Now think about backing up." Once again, I follow instructions, and
> soon I glide in reverse to where I started. With a twist of the
> wrist, I pirouette in place, and no matter which way I lean or how
> hard, Ginger refuses to let me fall over. What's going on here is all
> perfectly explicable--the machine is sensing and reacting to subtle
> shifts in my balance--but for the moment I am slack-jawed, baffled.
> It was Arthur C. Clarke who famously observed that "any sufficiently
> advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." By that
> standard, Ginger is advanced indeed.
>
> Since last January it has also been the tech world's
> most-speculated-about secret. That was when a book proposal about
> Ginger, a.k.a. "IT," got leaked to the website Inside.com . Kamen had
> been working on Ginger for more than a decade, and although the
> author (with whom the inventor is no longer collaborating) never
> revealed what Ginger was, his precis included over-the-top
> assessments from some of Silicon Valley's mightiest kingpins. As big
> a deal as the PC, said Steve Jobs; maybe bigger than the Internet,
> said John Doerr, the venture capitalist behind Netscape, Amazon.com
> and now Ginger.
>
> In a heartbeat, hundreds of stories full of fevered theorizing gushed
> forth in the press. Ginger was a hydrogen-powered hovercraft. Or a
> magnetic antigravity device. Or, closer to the mark, a souped-up
> scooter. Even the reprobates at South Park got into the act, spoofing
> Ginger in a recent episode--the details of which, sadly, are
> unprintable in a family magazine.
>
> This week the guessing game comes to an end as Kamen unveils his baby
> under its official name: Segway. Given the buildup, some are bound to
> be disappointed. ("It won't beam you to Mars or turn lead into gold,"
> shrugs Kamen. "So sue me.") But there is no denying that the Segway
> is an engineering marvel. Developed at a cost of more than $100
> million, Kamen's vehicle is a complex bundle of hardware and software
> that mimics the human body's ability to maintain its balance. Not
> only does it have no brakes, it also has no engine, no throttle, no
> gearshift and no steering wheel. And it can carry the average rider
> for a full day, nonstop, on only five cents' worth of electricity.
>
> The commercial ambitions of Kamen and his team are as advanced as
> their technical virtuosity. By stealing a slice of the $300
> billion-plus transportation industry, Doerr predicts, the Segway Co.
> will be the fastest outfit in history to reach $1 billion in sales.
> To get there, the firm has erected a 77,000-sq.-ft. factory a few
> miles from its Manchester, N.H., headquarters that will be capable of
> churning out 40,000 Segways a month by the end of next year.
>
> Kamen's aspirations are even grander than that. He believes the
> Segway "will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy."
> He imagines them everywhere: in parks and at Disneyland, on
> battlefields and factory floors, but especially on downtown sidewalks
> from Seattle to Shanghai. "Cars are great for going long distances,"
> Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use
> a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb. asses around town."
> In the future he envisions, cars will be banished from urban centers
> to make room for millions of "empowered pedestrians"--empowered,
> naturally, by Kamen's brainchild.
>
> Kamen's dream of a Segway-saturated world won't come true overnight.
> In fact, ordinary folks won't be able to buy the machines for at
> least a year, when a consumer model is expected to go on sale for
> about $3,000. For now, the first customers to test the Segway will be
> deep-pocketed institutions such as the U.S. Postal Service and
> General Electric, the National Parks Service and
> Amazon.com--institutions capable of shelling out about $8,000 apiece
> for industrial-strength models. And Kamen's dreamworld won't arrive
> at all unless he and his team can navigate the array of obstacles
> that are sure to be thrown up by competitors and ever cautious
> regulators.
>
> For the past three months, Kamen has allowed TIME behind the veil of
> secrecy as he and his team grappled with the questions that they will
> confront--about everything from safety and pricing to the challenges
> of launching a product with the country at war and the economy in
> recession. Some of their answers were smooth and assured; others less
> polished. But one thing was clear. As Kamen sees it, all these issues
> will quickly fade if the question most people ask about the Segway is
> "How do I get one?"
>
> ....
>
> ----------------- End Forwarded Message -----------------
>
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