Slashdot Mirror
Honda's Answer To the Segway
lcreech writes with an excerpt from the Daily Mail's description of a new Segway-style one-person vehicle being shown off by Honda: "The vehicle looks like a very modern unicycle and to ride it you simply lean your weight in the direction you want to go, whether that's forward, backwards or even sideways. It maintains its own balance travelling up to 3.7MPH. Not very fast."
Lets be happy that we're probably the last generation that can watch how the beautiful girls walk on street in their red dresses and nice legs and ass. Sooner or later this will be reality, in a bad and a good way. While convenience is nice, it has bad sides too.
That being said, I would so use this. Can I get a comfortable computer chair version too, so I can get a beer easily (and one of those japanese beer serving machines please )
Cool design, but I think it would be creepy to see people zipping down sidewalks on one of these things ... like they're floating along on an invisible toilet seat.
Creepy, I say!
~dijjnn
No handlebars. Less speed than a Segway. Lame.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Until I get this I'm not satisfied.
"Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
I can do one better. My invention has two wheels, and is entirely human-powered. It's good for the environment, and has a max speed of around 25mph! (legs willing).
I'll call it: a bicycle.
Caffeine is my anti-drug!
Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
That's it? Come on, we can walk faster than that!
The only thing this looks good for is if you have a boner and need to get up speed to force it into a very tight snatch.
Sup dawg, we heard you like unicycling so we put some wheels in your wheel so you can unicycle while you unicycle
More evidance that we are just too fat. We need this like we need another McDonalds on the next corner. Our feet are also "designed to be small, safe and unobtrusive enough to mingle with pedestrians or use indoors",
Knowing the japanese the way he is sitting on it is by design. Just unzip and go for ramming speed on the nearest female. And the top center picture is either a 'look no hands' or 'sorry, it slipped in by "mistake"'.
If you're intrepid enough to sit on a motorized unicycle, automated stabilizers aside, you're very likely able and willing to walk 4mph. So, it's no surprise they don't plan on bringing it to market.
However, nice proof of concept as a base for robots.
Damn those pesky terrorists
I think I'll just go back to riding around town on my goat. He's much faster.
This place: http://focusdesigns.com/ has a working version that you can buy today, apparently. It's also more than twice as fast at 10 MPH.
Actually, a lot of people have done this before. Just google "self balancing unicycle" or "powered unicycle".
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
that was my first thought... an awesome office chair.
Second thought was that it will work some muscles that aren't normally used.. with all that leaning moving and stuff...
Something like this would be very useful for people with mild to moderate mobility problems (e.g. the elderly, people with neurological disorders, people recovering from an injury). It would be perfectly fine for moving around a home, hospital, grocery store, etc. In these kinds of environments, 3.4 mph is a perfectly good speed.
I thought http://www.superbike.co.uk/imageBank/2/2007_CBR600RR.jpg was their response to segway. Cheaper, safer, faster, cooler.
So they saw the South Park version and thought, "Not gay enough. Make the whole thing a penis." And then decided it was too gay and popped a whole through the side to insubstantially reduce the wang-iness.
Too fat.
That's one way to keep people from driving under the influence, put them on a unicycle. LOL
Hope is the currency of fools
I'm not sure the little gyroscopes in that thing will be able to cope with the sort of lard-ass who'd want to buy one.
No sig today...
heinlein and his tumblebugs in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roads_Must_Roll
as an optional attachment for a prosthetic leg it might make more sense. Go go gadget... uncicyle-like-thingy?
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Nice legs and ass? Dude, where do you live and how do your real estate prices look?
Since bone-skinny has become synonym for sexy, healthy and so on, it's become hard to even FIND women with boobs or asses AT ALL. And the legs? Straight sticks, man. Nothing curvy about that! On the plus side, their hips can easily be used as hooks for your jacket...
This is just a proof of concept project. Honda encourages engineers to pursue "pet" projects in mobility. The ones with promise are given more resources. Sometimes they even become actual products, like Honda Jet.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
that was my first thought... an awesome office chair.
I was thinking more along the lines of tarted-up unicycle, which just makes me want a real (oldschool) unicycle. Damn you, Slashdot!
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
*point and laugh*
Seriously, though. Years late and... conspicuously not needed?
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
I *hate* it when fiction becomes reality! DAMN YOU WALL-E! DAMN YOU! [After getting over it] ... I just hope they can make one with heated seat pads and beer holder.
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
I'm waiting for one of those cool lounge chairs from Wall-E...
Lets be happy that we're probably the last generation that can watch how the beautiful girls walk on street in their red dresses and nice legs and ass.
"Probably"? Bicycles, roller blades, cars, and segways have failed to prevent this sight from occurring.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Since bone-skinny has become synonym for sexy, healthy and so on, it's become hard to even FIND women with boobs or asses AT ALL.
You must not live in the US because we have female obesity rates above 30%.
I have an old Mad Magazine from the late 60's that predicts this device. Everyone gets fat and immobile: hilarity ensues -- it was basically copied in the Walee movie...
Hey, I'm fat you insensitive clod!
~dijjnn
Are you sure it's even real?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
...they've come up with something that makes you look even dorkier than you would look riding a Segway.
Where I live there is a disturbing number of scooters for the grossly obese - those people who are so corpulent that even walking is beyond them. Whenever I see one, I get to thinking that the only reason why Segways haven't brought on the chubpocalypse is because they were priced too high for lower income people (who have the highest rate of obesity) to afford.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
Honda's Answer To the Segway
Did it really need a response?
While in general this thing is completely pointless, the way the wheel itself works is really cool. It's composed of cylinders which form the ring for the main wheel but allow sideways movement. Leave it up to the Japanese to dream up the most useless application for advanced technology, but it's cool that they're exploring unconventional concepts.
I commuted to work by unicycle for several years and have done hundreds of miles in total. Modern unicycles have come a long way from the old days of a circus exhibit. There are lot of people who ride very long distances on them. A unicycle won't suit most people for commuting but it actually has more plus points than you'd think ...
* Lighter weight than a bike, relatively easy to pick up and carry, or wheel along.
* Takes less space than a bike to store indoors.
* Cheaper than a bike of equivalent quality.
* Once you're skilled you can "idle" on the spot (or just hop occasionally to shift the thing back under your centre of mass) so you may not have to put a foot down when waiting in traffic or at lights.
* Potentially very mechanically simple.
* Good exercise, including for your core muscles due to the postural component of keeping balanced.
It's also a good attention grabber, if you like that sort of thing. I've observed that a lot of geeks, particularly computer geeks, seem to like unicycling. My guess is that this is because, relative to a bike, it requires a high degree of mental engagement but in a non-intellectual way. So you get to exercise your brain but in a way which distracts you from the pressures of logical thought processes.
There are some commuting unicycles here:
http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1&subcat=7&cat=Commuter
Note that handlebars are available, which allows experienced riders to take some weight of their "bits". Combined with modern saddles, a unicycle is a lot less punishing to your nether regions than you'd expect, though you obviously still need to take care!
Finally, at the high end of the price range, there are unicycles with the Schlumpf (and Kris Holm-Schlumpf) hub-based gearing system. No exposed gearing but you can get something like a 1.5:1 increase in gear ratio, allowing you go go much faster whilst still having the wheel be small and light. In some ways I'd think this would be the best urban commuting unicycle for experienced riders.
There are clear disadvantages to a unicycle to but I figure some folks here might be interested anyhow. Because an unpowered unicycle has made such a good commuting vehicle for me I wouldn't be surprised if an electrical one is actually more practical than you'd expect.
[if anyone wants to find out more, the rec.sport.unicycling newsground, also available as a forum http://unicyclist.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3 will be able to answer your questions or you can just reply to me here - it's arguably even on topic!]
Don't worry, I'm sure that when horses were first tamed someone bemoaned the loss of walking. I imagine the same thing happened when the carriage was invented, and the bicycle, and the automobile. Pretty girls will still walk, and when they don't they usually get fat, anyway.
Nothing to worry about in that respect.
Free Martian Whores!
FTA: The single wheel on the U3-X is made up of many tiny motor-controlled wheels, packed inside the bigger wheel, allowing the device to swerve in any direction.
Unicycle: A unicycle is a one-wheeled human-powered vehicle.
"Lame" - Galaxar
Scandinavia. In increasing amounts girls are getting "a little round" because of McDonalds and other US shit, but theres still lots of nice blond girls around. Not obese, not skinny, but just the perfect :) Blond girls with ponytails, ah 3
Wow, Honda's answer to the Segway. Because, obviously, the original Segway was such a runaway success.
-Z
but the idiocy of the application makes me wish for an electromagnetic pulse to turn the application interesting too. I already want to see Segway users faceplant (I saw a video once and loved it), and this isn't helping the situation.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
From the title I thought TFA was about the Toyota i-Real. Way cooler, it's basically a powered arm chair.
lean back and ride, ride it!
Something I can sit on while using my treadmill~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Amazing that Honda with its vast R&D and engineering resources is now able to produce something that one guy as a hobby built designed and built for himself years ago. Gosh, I'm really impressed. I'll have my broker buy me some Honda stock immediately.
What the hell? Go to the mall dude... you won't be disappointed.
notice the picture on the bottom left, the one with the handle bar
now compare that to the top 3 pictures with the nice executive fellow sitting happily with his pelvic thrust forward
i dunno, but i'm not sure the male prostate doubles as a seat cushion
however, i am quite impressed with takanobusan's ability to tolerate pain and discomfort while smiling serenely
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The segway was an answer for nothing itself.
Now we have an answer to an answer to a question nobody was asking.
God (or Mother Nature, if you wish), has even better answer to this stuff, it's called legs. Damn all those crappy substitutes.
Bicycles and roller blades give you a work out. Cars *have* contributed to the obesity epidemic. Obesity is inversely related to the availability of sidewalks in an area. Segways are too dorky to become popular enough to make a difference.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Did you mean "popped a whale through the side"?
Free Martian Whores!
The solution is to give in an AI, and give it the personality of a 2 or 3 year old toddler. Every couple blocks it will suddenly stop and scream "No! I don't want to go anymore! Carry me!". That way you'd get a nice mix of convenience and unplanned physical exercise.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
I'd rather have a powered trike that would do 40 mph for as long as I could pedal.
Scooters are probably easier because people can sit on them. Segways are too much work because you have to use your legs to stand.
"Frequently wrong, never in doubt."
We're from Canada and last December we took a trip to Florida. We were all aghast at the huge number of fat slobs we saw there. And a lot of them were youngish (
Many of them seemed proud, too, wearing big ol' USA shirts.
What a huge difference a border makes.
Looks like a personal hemorrhoid machine.
I wonder if it's using a Mecanum wheel. It allows travel in any direction, but only on very flat surfaces. It's used for fork lifts and the like, where extra maneuverability is needed.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hackaday/133696060/
Just read the FAQ: http://focusdesigns.com/faq/
How fast does it go?
An SBU falling vertically through the air will accelerate at an amazing rate of 32 feet per second per second until it reaches its terminal velocity of 193MPH. (We do not recommend traveling this fast.) On level ground and full charge we say it can go 10MPH depending on riders guts (mentally and physically).
The scantily-clad women in the sidebar make this story borderline NSFW, at least in the US.
The girls who need to ride something around instead of walking reasonable distances don't stay beautiful for long.
Now, there's nothing quite like pretty girls in skirts riding bicycles.
Where I live there is a disturbing number of scooters for the grossly obese
This might be of interest to you, my friend...
That being said, I would so use this. Can I get a comfortable computer chair version too, so I can get a beer easily (and one of those japanese beer serving machines please)
This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. Does this thing come with a manual on "Beer Caching Protocol" (BCP)? Because it looks EXTREMELY high latency.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
"... an awesome office chair."
Except, with the Honda vehicle, if there is a failure in the computer system, you die. But we Slashdot readers know that computer failures hardly ever happen, right?
Segways made me appreciate bicycles. If you hit something large, like a rock, it's possible you will be carried over it. Bicycles have no computer system to fail, and they are inexpensive.
I rode a Segway. It had a RISK OF DEATH (all caps) label.
My experience of that article about Honda is that it says to me, "Buy a Toyota. That company concentrates on doing one thing well." I recently bought a Toyota because Consumer Reports said Hondas had automatic transmission problems.
The Segway finally has some competition. I was getting tired of seeing Segways all over the place.
I simply *sigh* at the more "electrifying" of the world we keep doing. Why not, lets keep finding ways to burn fuels to do relatively simple things.
And Medicade pays for those scooters and won't pay for a Segway.
Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
No chrome support. I'm directed to the Firefox "Download a better browser" page.
I really wish Clowntech had pursued mass-condensing technology to fit more people inside a small car instead...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
This thing reminds me of the vehicle Mr Garrison created that was "Better than airports"....
As a long-term cyclist (specifically bicyclist, for you rice rocket fans out there), I see the design of this product as a great mistake. And before anyone comments: yes, I did watch the video, which due to camera filming angle is simply not revealing enough about the seat design to wean my concern. That said...
Don't laugh -- the chance of pudendal nerve entrapment looks to be incredibly high with this kind of design. Women should be worried about urological complications, and men should be worried about impotency. UTIs are likely to increase with this kind of design too. Yes really.
Any long-term cyclist, or doctor for that matter, can tell you that a decent saddle (seat) absolutely requires the perennial area be cut out/removed completely. The common saddle today has a recessed area (which does not help relieve pressure -- don't let anyone tell you otherwise), and many are still flat. The proper solution is to cut away the entire perennial area of the saddle, resulting in a literal a hole in the saddle. This ensures the arteries and nerves in your no-no spots don't get squashed. Some saddles consist of two cushions where your buttocks go with nothing in between, which works equally as well -- and the design of Honda's product (based on the video) may use this design, but it looks as if one's crotch literally rests on a fulcrum point of some kind.
This may be TMI for some, but I speak from experience. In 2004 I started experiencing signs of perennial damage -- specifically, occasional sharp pains which originated in the perennial or anal area and shot through my body like a knife (commonly a sign of PNE). Urination also became complex (specifically minor overflow incontinence). It got worse over the course of 4-5 months. As a computer geek the first thing I did was replace my home and work seating (where I spent the majority of my time) -- no difference. At the 6 month mark I, despite the embarrassment, saw my doctor who immediately said "Aren't you a cyclist? Replace your saddle immediately. Buy one with the perennial area completely cut out -- not receded". I did as instructed and within a few weeks: no more pain. The incontinence problem resides, indicating there was some permanent damage (probably the detrusor muscle), but only on rare occasion. And thankfully there were no sexual side effects. :P
I realise this device will probably not be used for long rides / rides over long distances, but given its slow rate of movement, rides would be longer than that of, say, a Segway, electric scooter, bicycle or similar device. Consider the implications of someone using one of these devices multiple times a day to get to work -- say, a distance of 2 miles round-trip.
Honda should consider the risks involved with what they've created. Fix the design now to ensure no class-action lawsuits down the road.
Also, Segways require you to stand upright. Do you really think the scooter jockeys would be willing to stand up, even if the Segway cost the same as their nice comfy electric armchairs on wheels?
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/09/04/1532252
After parsing your post a second time, yes, Segways are mighty unstable. It's not as easy as it looks. Run over anything bigger than a tennis ball with one of the wheels, and you will get tossed forward or sideways headfirst. But it looks like a wipeout with the Honda device results in a spill similar to having a chair pulled out from under you - still a good way to hurt yourself but at least you fall ass first and not sideways or forwards from a standing height.
The most common Segway wipeouts seem to be exactly that - underestimating the width of the machine and hanging one wheel up on a sidewalk crack or obstacle. The machine usually does a very quick zero-radius 180 but sometimes it will tip over.
For what it's worth Segway provides you with three keys to the device. Each key has a progressively higher speed limit programmed into it. You power up with the Black Key of Death at your own peril.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
1. It looks like it's stuck up his ass.
2. Look at how close his feet are to the ground. I can't wait to hear reports of broken toes.
Communities where persons have been completely dependent on cars from childhood to old age have existed for much longer than the obesity epidemic. Cars do not seem to be a major stimulus (though they certainly do contribute).
While "correlation is not causation" and all that, there is a strong correlation between the increased use of high fructose corn syrup and the increase in obesity in the USA. If other countries that control HFCS usage also show an increase in obesity, then clearly this would not be significant. But in the American diet, everything from cola to pickles contains serious amounts of HFCS unless one is very careful about reading labels and avoiding it.
Or maybe I'm just letting the way that Monsanto keeps gathering in government subsidies as it ruins economies and ecosystems bias my view.
Will
Why do I keep thinking of the "hoverchairs" from Wall-E ... and the resulting balloons of blubber everybody turned into whenever I see articles like this???
Don't worry, I'm sure that when horses were first tamed someone bemoaned the loss of walking. I imagine the same thing happened when the carriage was invented, and the bicycle, and the automobile. Pretty girls will still walk, and when they don't they usually get fat, anyway.
Of course the difference there is that riding a horse is actually quite hard work. It is pretty easy if the horse is at a gallop, but they cannot gallop all the time so you have to learn how to sit on a horse while it trots. This kills your thighs because you have to use your legs as suspension.
I dont read
Plenty of people who aren't fat have trouble getting around on their feet. Many old people, for example--and they make up a large and increasing fraction of the Japanese population.
made me want to boot that guy in the cubes. That thing makes you look like even more of tool than the dip next to you on the Segway.
I'm one of those folks that had to have a spinal fusion surgery due to an injury at work. One of the side effects of it I have found is my balance now is HORRIBLE. I can be standing at the kitchen sink, doing dishes, and nearly fall on my side because my body suddenly decides which way is up. As cool, or helpful, or intriguing as any of these machines might be, I know for one, the day I sat on one, I'd put my head through a damned wall because it interpreted me trying to regain my balance and I'd wind up getting bucked off, even with such a low speed on that thing (Murphy hates me). Not to mention, that thing would anger my back worse than sitting on the floor does already.
Lets be happy that we're probably the last generation that can watch how the beautiful girls walk on street in their red dresses and nice legs and ass.
... at least until The Matrix comes along.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
And Medicaid overpays for those scooters and won't pay for a Segway.
There, fixed that for ya
yech... you could have at least included a "Not Safe For Humans" note on that link.
I can't imagine being a lawyer the the "scooting justice's" courtroom. I'm afraid I'd be unable to treat a judge with much respect if she obviously can't figure out that there's a relation between what goes in the mouth and how fat one gets. I wonder if she munches on Twinkies during court.
> Pretty girls will still walk, and when they don't they usually get fat, anyway.
And this thing'll let you whizz past all the fat ones in search of the attractive ones.
Communities where persons have been completely dependent on cars from childhood to old age have existed for much longer than the obesity epidemic. Cars do not seem to be a major stimulus (though they certainly do contribute).
I think it took time for the effects to materialise, and for the number of people affected by them to become significant.
In this country (UK), it was unusual for a child to be taken to school by car in the 1980s, but by the end of the 1990s it was completely normal.
That, kids' TV, video games and a worse diet are the main factors behind childhood obesity.
The least-obese area in the UK is London. London has the least people who drive to work, a result of having the best public transport and the most walkable communities.
But in the American diet, everything from cola to pickles contains serious amounts of HFCS unless one is very careful about reading labels and avoiding it.
In the UK plain old sugar is much more common than HFCS. Obesity isn't as bad as the USA, but is worse than anywhere else in Europe.
Just read the comic B.C.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
the mentally handicapped
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Geez! I'm too coordinationally challenged for something like that. Seriously, I can only walk and chew gum 2 out of 3 attempts. Admittedly those around me find that third attempt highly entertaining...
"The least-obese area in the UK is London. London has the least people who drive to work, a result of having the best public transport and the most walkable communities."
Is the ONLY thing that differentiates London and the rest of the UK? The highest per capita income is not relevant?
that was my first thought... an awesome office chair. Second thought was that it will work some muscles that aren't normally used.. with all that leaning moving and stuff...
Yeah, maybe using one of these might allow a person to work off their love-handles. ;) However, as an office chair - they'd definitely have to add a backrest and arm-rests. With just the fanny-pad, I and the awkward way of half-sitting, I can't see the demo-product being very comfortable for any real length of time. Even the guys demo'ing the product in the video didn't look like they were terribly sure of their balance or comfort. But whether this product can actually find a practical use in the world - you can be certain some of the new technology used to make it work will find it's way into other stuff.
;)
And to the GP's thoughts about this being a reality of the future where people don't walk anymore - I don't know. You probably will see a very large number of the already fat and lazy migrating to being even more fat and lazy, and I think you'd also see the health-conscious continue to be health conscious. I can tell you which group of girls' legs I'd rather see walking down the street today, or in future.
Down with the career politician! SUPPORT TERM LIMITS
Lets be happy that we're probably the last generation that can watch how the beautiful girls walk on street in their red dresses and nice legs and ass. Sooner or later this will be reality, in a bad and a good way. While convenience is nice, it has bad sides too.
That being said, I would so use this. Can I get a comfortable computer chair version too, so I can get a beer easily (and one of those japanese beer serving machines please )
Are you really so sure that sooner or later this technology will be ubiquitous? Is this the same reality in which every single person has a flying car? The fact is that in very dense urban centers walking is and will probably remain the preferred method of travel. You can still move around and travel in a tightly packed crowd. On the other hand all the free-moving vehicles humans have thus far devised require some measure of space to operate. I think what we'll see more of are automated systems of travel, like the moving walkways you see in many airports. But even these will always remain relatively expensive compared to a concrete sidewalk.
Don't worry, I'm sure that when horses were first tamed someone bemoaned the loss of walking. I imagine the same thing happened when the carriage was invented, and the bicycle, and the automobile.
Nothing to worry about in that respect.
A good point, but the original bicycles actually were seen as a device that would only increase the health and mobility of the populace.
I watched a demo of this thing on Youtube, and I have to say, one of the more obvious problems I foresee is that it makes a horrible high pitched sound, and I can only imagine that the sound of a handfull of them going around the office, store, or just anywhere would get real old seriously fast!
Lets be happy that we're probably the last generation that can watch how the beautiful girls walk on street in their red dresses and nice legs and ass. Sooner or later this will be reality, in a bad and a good way. While convenience is nice, it has bad sides too.
If we reintroduce cobble stone foot paths I'm sure we can put some bounce into the ride.
Can it climb stairs?
my girlfriend looks so hot riding a bicycle, it's hazardous to my ability to ride along with her. I think it's at least partly because it reminds me of cute, fresh young ladies riding bicycles in movies and laughing. And the posture is just so sexy!
Except maybe pretty girls in nothing riding bicycles. =P
Honesty may be the best policy, but by process of elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy.
BAM! SECOND WHEEL
_o
_`\,_}
(_)/ (_)
an awesome office chair
Am i the only one noticing the painful wedgie that thing makes? It is practically inside the guy.
Only a slashdotter would finish that sentence with the word bicycles.
Name: Mr. Anon E Mouse; SSN: 555-55-5555
Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, had invented a wheelchair that was capable of climbing up stairs. The problem was, the wheelchair was too expensive to start to produce because of the small quantities of unique parts needed at first. So Kamen wanted to come up with something that A) was made from the same parts of the wheelchair and B) he could sell for a lot of money, thereby driving the price of the wheelchair down. That's how the Segway was born. People give Kamen a lot of crap for the lack of success of the Segway to revolutionize transportation, but that was never it's goal, it was just a high priced item to be sold to a niche market so that the price of a more useful humanitarian item could be driven down.
Its coming to a town near you.
I could see these devices for the elderly, but the simple matter is we keep enabling fatties and wondering why we have an obesity problem.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
It doesn't take much speed for an easily re-positionable factory-worker robot to be demonstrably more effective than a stationary robot for many simple tasks outside the reach of the stationary robot. Being slightly slower than a healthy human's capability to dodge harm is advantageous as well. This is a shrewd development for a large manufacturing entity that desperately needs economic agility. A workforce like this could be fabulously competitive. It could release many souls from a life of menial labor and foster effective learning and dreaming. Look at humanity. Our greatest potential remains to be realized. Unemployment statistics are a bad joke. Humanity is over-employed through artificial economics. Because of this, many noble things remain undone.
Perhaps we'd best be sure this is commonplace before making lithium-ion battery powered seats...
Does it have V-TEC?
And can it KICK IN, YO?
understand the point to these things. Segway or what, why can't people use their legs? isn't part of the obesity epidemic the lack of exercise for those involved? how is making it easier for people to not even WALK supposed to be an advantage or boon? half the people who use motorized chairs now probably shouldn't have started using them to start with.
besides, with a Segway, you're standing up to use. are you so lazy that you can't move your legs while they're supporting your weight?
"To stop the terrorists."
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet. The UNO was featured on daily planet about a year ago. It was featured as one of popular science's top ten inventions.
They didn't invent it! they ripped off some 19yo's idea
Just to clarify, the parent meant the perineum, the area between genitals and anus, and misspelled perineal. At least I'm pretty sure he didn't mean to refer to plants which bloom year after year (perennials).
Also, I've lived on a bike on cross-continental rides, and he's right, the wrong saddle is more than just a pain in the ass.
Damn those pesky terrorists
I do not think it means what you think it means. Perineal, not perennial. And 500 words about crotch-crushing from a non-defect in a prototype that is not going to be mass-produced?
Actually, according to the Theiss Titillation Theory, completely nude women would actually be less appealing.
You don't know their full story. Maybe they can't walk, and that's largely why they are obese.
Table-ized A.I.
Funny how inovation goes: I saw a video of a similar thing a couple of monhts back . Not as shiny as the Honda one, but still a nice achievement from a guy in his garage.
> Why do I keep thinking of the "hoverchairs" from Wall-E ... and the resulting balloons of blubber everybody turned into whenever I see articles like this???
Perhaps because in this case there was a photo of a scene from Wall-E included in the article?
You should come and live in Sweden then.
Communities where persons have been completely dependent on cars from childhood to old age have existed for much longer than the obesity epidemic. Cars do not seem to be a major stimulus (though they certainly do contribute).
Cars are for covering distance, scooters are a replacement for walking whereas a car is a replacement for horse drawn wagons.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
From the comment above, titled RISK OF DEATH: "Segways are mighty unstable. It's not as easy as it looks. Run over anything bigger than a tennis ball with one of the wheels, and you will get tossed forward or sideways headfirst."
There is a serious risk. If you aren't wearing a helmet, you could die from hitting your head on the pavement. The reason helmets are required by law is that a small blow to the head can kill. The labels warn about that, but apparently not enough to get people to actually understand, considering some of the comments below.
I had a conversation with a friend along the lines of:
Me: "And they used technology from their little robot man, so it's not like that was entirely useless!" ..."
Friend: "Well, given they used it to make a unicycle
That's partially true I think. The real problem is that people lose the ability to walk on their own and then don't alter their eating habits and so start putting on lots of weight. Even if they do cut back once they realize what's going on they don't have a way to work off the excess and would have to rely on under eating to get rid of the extra. And when you do that it's way to easy to push your body too far and it'll start hoarding fats.
...or do you have a Segway shoved up your ass?
I think it looks ugly, dorky, and rather uncomfortable.
No thanks, guess I'll wait for hoverchairs or something...
3.7 miles/h = 1.7 m/s = 6.0 km/h
Walking speed.
Not everywhere. According to an (unverified) anecdote, an african tribal elder after first seeing a bicycle commented "The white men are so lazy that they want to sit down even when they walk".
It's true. Last time I saw a naked girl riding a bicycle she was covered head to toe in body paint. I've never seen a more beautiful thing.
Make a segway-like vehicle that can do halfpipe tricks / go airborne / go fast.
People will buy those.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Yes, it was like the time I visited Rome, and realized that Americans weren't the only people in the world with a visibly prevalent proportion of morbidly obese people, including the fattest woman I have ever seen in my life.
I spent some time in BC a couple of years ago and realized that a lot of Canadians are also fat.
So I've stopped accepting the premise that it's only "Americans" who are fat.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I can't help feeling people will hate these as much as Segways for the same reason - they make you look like a tosser. I mean, what's with the bent knees, legs spread posture? Please! This won't switch me from my bicycle yet.
"I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1