Clear Speakers, Segway Clone Top CES Coverage

jlouderb writes "Phew. We just finished five days of wall to wall coverage of this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Highlights include "invisible" speakers, a Segway clone for around $1,000, details on Intel's LCoS plans, a humanoid robot from Sony and more HDTV recorders, new home networking schemes and flat panel TVs than you can shake a stick at. If you weren't one of the 100,000 or so who made it to Vegas, check out what you missed at PCMag.com."

Comments

Not a Segway

[One Louder]

Uh, that thing has *four* closely-spaced wheels - that makes it something that's going to fall over really easily. Stop suddenly and you're going to be singing soprano. There's no gyroscopic balancing going on.

Not a big shock since the Segway's balancing system is patented.

Re:Not a Segway

[EvilFrog]

That's like saying you couldn't patent a printing press because people had been writing by hand for years, or a loom because weaving could be done without it. Using logic, one could claim the universe as prior art to anything, as we are simply using the laws of physics to provide means to an end. Finding new and better ways to do things that can already be done is not only patentable, but one of the reasons that patents exist.

Re:Not a Segway

[_Sprocket_]

Uh, that thing has *four* closely-spaced wheels - that makes it something that's going to fall over really easily.

Another thing that this does is increase the footprint for the device. I believe one of the advantages touted for the Segway was that it could be used wherever someone would walk due to a footprint roughly the same size as a pedestrian. It looks like if one wanted to pivot around with this device, you're much more likely to catch someone's toes as the back wheels swing around.

segway clone

[potpie]

Does anyone here own or know anyone who owns a segway?

Wasn't it the biggest let down when you heard that this new type of mobile that would "revolutionize" transportation forever... turned out to be a bulky, overpriced scooter?

Hey- the wheels are next to each other. Neat. Now why would I want to buy one?

It was a great idea, but not any more than meal-in-a-pill was a good idea, or the anthropomorphic robot of the 1950's. Neat, but who really wants one (not counting rich people with money to burn)? So does it really deserve to be copied? Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery... but... it's a scooter!

Why clone the Segway?

[CottonEyedJoe]

I'm the first to admit its a neat idea if the Segway werent eclipsed by the venerable bicycle in nearly every respect. For the price of a Segway you can buy a nearly weightless (15 lbs) carbon fiber bike that Lance Armstrong would be proud to ride, and with a few weeks of practice, any reasonably healthy person could out pace and out distance any Segway.

For $1000 youre still talking about a nice shiny new "bike shop" bike that would run the clone into the dirt. Heck, even a $150 Wal Mart special would have no trouble in that regard.

Re:Why clone the Segway?

[Scrameustache]

any reasonably healthy person could out pace and out distance any Segway.

So healthy persons are not the Segway's target market.
We're talking about a guy who makes fancy balancing wheelchairs, the segway is more like a fancy motorized "walker" (what do you call them 4-legged cane-like things elderly people walk around with?).

its a neat idea if the Segway werent eclipsed by the venerable bicycle in nearly every respect.

From your young, healthy point of view. But for someone who's proud to be able to stand but too weak to walk all the way to the market and back with the groceries, the segway is much more desirable.

Re:Why clone the Segway?

[198348726583297634]

Cause you won't want to ride your bike four miles in a business suit on a day after it's rained. You won't have very many nice suits if you do that too many times. Riding the segway, on the other hand, gets you to the office as clean as if you'd driven, minus the vehicle emissions.

Re:Why clone the Segway?

[swordgeek]

The OP made an interesting point--this IS still a very first generation device. The first generation of bikes were more trouble than they were worth.

That said, I agree. The Segway is a solution in search of a problem that's already been solved in better ways--for most people. Still, unlike "new" speakers, a "new" camera, or most other daily "new" shite from companies, the Segway is at least fairly original.

Here Are Three Reasons

[DumbSwede]

In the short range, company visibility, and advertising. If Sony makes cute impressive robots, you may conclude (correctly) Sony is an on the ball technical company and therefore its VCRs, Televisions, Computers, and Games are likely to be of a superior quality.

Spin off technologies used in industry the general public is unaware of.

Long range goals (something American companies often neglect). Someday everyone will have robotic aids and servants. It won't happen overnight, nor necessarily in our life time, but its an easy prediction to make for something almost certain to happen within the next hundred years.

Re:Here Are Three Reasons

[danila]

Next hundred years? What? Apparently, you think that either
a) It's more difficult to come from QRIO to a general-purpose intelligent robot than from radio to Internet, from Wright's Flyer to 1000+ passenger jets, solar-powered planes and UAVs, from Model T to GM's Autonomy.
or
b) The rate of progress is decreasing.
is true. But I think both a and b are false. And we will have intelligent robots in a few decades, not centuries.
Check this out.

Re:Ok... the robots...

[xenotrout]

I think this may be like playing a sport to learn physics or writing a computer game to learn a programming language. It's a fun way to figure out some practical concepts that may eventually be applied to something else. Sure, we aren't going to see Honda produce dancing cars or conversational power generators, but building a robot like this introduces lots of design challanges that can be used for other things, plus it may get the engineers thinking more creatively than they usually do. Sorry, I can't think of any examples--perhaps since I haven't been building robots.

Me too....

[microbob]

Ever since I got my TiVo my Proscan HD decoder just collects dust....

I did use it a little last month when I tried out HDNet, but sadily I'm addicted to TiVo (dual tuner no less) and promptly cancelled HDNet and turned the Proscan off.

-mb

Definitely Not a Segway

[SethJohnson]

Actually, I don't think it would be easy to tip this thing forward. The geometry is such that your center of gravity is behind the wheels on that platform. This means it requires considerable force to 'lift' you up for you to tip over forward. If your gravity were centered on the axles of the two front wheels, then definitely a twig or something would send you tumbling.

That being said, this scooter looks like a massive piece of crap. Not massive in size, but massive in its crapiness. There's no real innovation in this device. It's just a real cosmetic imitation of the Segway. A better buy is one of those cheap scooter things people are selling in the parking lots of abandoned gas stations these days. And I say that knowing that you don't have any kind of return policy with a vendor who doesn't have a permanent physical address.