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.

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.

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.