Curiosity, Thoughts and Whatever...

I'm not a regular blogger just occasionally wanna share some thoughts and ideas to the rest of the world. Hope you like what you see and written.....:))

Human Transporter

Published Friday, March 24, 2006 by SaiRay | E-mail this post

I want to talk about invention today. Something revolutionary and useful. When Dean Kamen announces his inverntion years ago it was given the spot light and attention of the global scientist community. It is revolutionary because the human transpo rter have a gryoscope to balances itself.

Here's a good explanation of it from Wikipedia.

The Segway HT is a two-wheeled, self-balancing, computer-controlled, electrically-powered gyroscopic light-mode transportation device invented by Dean Kamen and unveiled in December 2001. It is produced by the company Segway Inc. The name "Segway HT" stands for "Segway Human Transporter".

The Segway is the world's first self-balancing transportation device. Computers and motors in the base keep the Segway upright at all times. Users lean forward to move forward, and back to move backwards. Turning is done mechanically via hand control. Segways are driven by quiet, non-polluting electric motors at up to 12.5 mph (10 mph in the P-series).

With today's high fuel prices and sky rocketing cost of living, I feel this device should come in handy. However, it has been 5 yrs since the product had been introduce and I am not seeing the price coming down. I had always thought when a product life cycle had one or another saturate, perhaps maturing and also producing in mass volume then the cost of the product inevitablly would come down. Perhaps this is a case of marketing the product as an exclusive "TOYS" for the rich and powerful and not for human conveniences. The basic model price is around > RM 20k.

Currently there is a few Segway model avalaible only ( 4 to be precise). I can think of its many benefit and usage:

1. For Police Patrol (Tourist Patrol and etc)

2. Tourist Resort + Golf Cart

3. Neigbourhood grocery shopping

4. Kids going to school

5. Recreational activities in park and etc

6. Daily working or commuting

There is just so much potential. If only Dean Kamen can reduce the price towards USD1k -2k then I think there will be a lot of taker. I would be the first buyer lining up the store. Segway distributor in Singapore is SiS Technologies and I can't find anything on their website at all. Poor quality. Guess what !! You can't get it at all in My.

Here's an interesting article on the inner working mechanism of Segway HT (from Segway or HowStuffWorks). Very interesting........give it a read.