Top secret invention greater than the computer?

[sweetca]

so what is it really supposed to be? some people have said cold fusion....no. others say this scooter thing. i just want to know what it really is!

 

[NicColt]

check out this blurb from inside.

"Bob Metcalfe, the founder of 3com and a friend of Kamen's, responded to questions about the inventor's secret project with the following e-mail Thursday night: ''My hero Dean told my kids about IT, and I've seen IT (THEM) in Manchester. We've been sworn to secrecy. But, well, if it pans out, it's gonna be big, like Doerr et al. say. Now, if I invented metal, and came out with the first spoon, which would be the big invention, the spoon or metal? This is the current complication in solving the IT mystery."

My best guess and one big disapointment.

My best guess is that he has finally fully developed an Ionized air Transportation device or anti gravity board like the one found here. Possible prototype board.

However I also read this little thing.

Statement From Dean Kamen, President, DEKA Research & Development Corporation MANCHESTER, NH -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 01/12/2001 -- Since speculation arising from an unfortunate, unapproved leak of a book proposal has not diminished, I feel compelled to comment further. DEKA is currently working on several exciting projects. The book proposal referred to one. However, the leaked proposal quoted several prominent technology leaders out of context, without their doubts, risks and maybes included. This, together with spirited speculation about the unknown, has lead to expectations that are beyond whimsical. We have a promising project, but nothing of the earth shattering nature that people are conjuring up. Please let me focus my public efforts on being an evangelist for FIRST, a cause which truly could have an earth shattering impact.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact: Donna Tamzarian Company: DEKA Research & Development Corporation
Phone: 603-669-5139 Contact: David Brown Company: FIRST Phone: 603-666-3906

 

[aznmist]

You guys are idiots! I saw their patent. I forgot what the URL was. There was even a picutre of the device. It is a scooter looking object. I'm not sure if it's anti-grav or not but it looked pretty gay. There was this woman on it and her hair was flying backwards(simple black and white drawing).

If anybody has the patent URL, post it here please.

 

[Paladinexe]

The hover boards (from Back to the Future) were indeed real and did not use magnets. Parenting groups successfully fought the mass production of these due to the obvious safety elements involved if a child had one of these to float about freely on.

 

[Shu8]

aznmist...yea i saw that too but that invention was something AFTER he built the "IT"

 

[hagbard]

Paladinexe - right, the hover boards where "real", and David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear

I happen to know the technique used to make those boards appear to "hover", they don't exist beyond the movie screen.

...hag

 

[NicColt]

I think we should all get over IT

But I like this one.

Conor Mullooly: "IT could be the Sterling engine Kamen's been working on for many years. It is said to be the size of a briefcase, costing around $1,500. The engine is dual purpose; water purifier/power generator."

Does anyone have a link on what a Sterling engine is.

 

[NicColt]

Is it possible that he has perfected the Sterling engine. A scooter that works with a Sterling Engine.

New Accoustic Sterling Engine

Two scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a low-tech engine that performs work using simple sound waves and has no moving parts. Scott Backhaus and Gregory Swift believe it has the potential to provide alternative energy, significantly save energy supplies and reduce global pollution.

Their "thermo acoustic Stirling engine" is a long, steel, baseball-bat-shaped resonator with an oval handle on the lower end, which is filled with compressed helium. Electronic devices generate sound waves, which stimulate the gas to alternately expand and contract.

"The working fluid is pressurized helium, an inert gas, which neither depletes stratospheric ozone nor contributes to global warming," he said.

Researchers, he adds, will soon "exploit this technology for applications that need mechanical or electrical energy."

 

[WoundedWallet]

<< ''If I invented metal, and came out with the first spoon, which would be the big invention, the spoon or metal?'' >>

That doesn't help much, but it opens the interpretation to some type of new fuel at most or an environmentally friendly transportation device based on an old fuel at least.

Cold Fusion would definitely be Earth Shattering. So that ain't it.

And hover scooters seem to be even more far out than Cold Fusion.

So we're left with.... ?

 

[Sir Fredrick]

The metal/spoon analogy stands up if you consider the key invention a new energy source, but the implementation of such just some kind of weenie transporter like a scooter. Now I think one of those scooters would be pretty cool, but the &quot;metal&quot; so to speak would have to be the new energy source, assuming that it's something like his sterling engine. However, the architecture of cities would most likely not have to change much, if at all, for such devices. The old line companies affected would of course be power (and possibly gas) companies. Still, I wouldn't be willing to bet on any of this.

 

[G14]

IT Revealed? A friend of mine e-mailed me this link (thanks Dave) Click here for information on a patent registered by Dean Kamen regarding a &quot;personal mobility vehicle.&quot;

Here is another link as well.

 

[Batti]

Mr. Kamen has more than 100 patents. Why are you all so stuck on the scooter/hoverboard/whatever?

 

[PieDerro]

If either that 2-wheeled scooter or the Unicycle type thing from G14's post is what IT really is, then it is hardly going to be a replacement for the car. I mean, how are parents going to get their kids around with them, and they sure look uncomfortable for longer trips (say over 15 kilometres) where you'd be standing up in an awkward position for quite a long time.

 

[jaywallen]

In the spoon / metal analogy, the metal may also be the rather extraordinary running gear / control systems of the unit, as well as its energy source. There are already very practical electric scooters in use in Europe. They even have decent speed (for city riding) and range. But I haven't yet seen a gyroscopically balanced &quot;true&quot; single track vehicle -- or a single axle vehicle, until the advent of Kamen's super-duper wheelchair. (Motorcycles are single track, except when they're turning or &quot;dog-walking&quot;. Unicycles are always single track.)

I'd be inclined to disagree that the current infrastructures of most cities would be hospitable to devices of this type, unless the final product deviates considerably from the drawings in the patent application papers. The mix of automobile, truck and scooter traffic on roadways of current design would be too deadly a mix for most people. If this thing is as revolutionary as it is said to be, it should manage to replace the majority of automobile traffic in large cities. With the exception of the industrial parks, entire cities could be mall-like or park-like in construction. I think it's obvious that, even given such changes, the final device will have to be VERY different from the scooters depicted in the images we've seen before it would provide sufficiently safe transport for the majority of people. Either that or the operators would all have to wear protective garb that made them resemble Michelin men!

The application of a Stirling engine, or some other efficient and environment-friendly power producer, to a small personal transport would be a very exciting development. Whatever this thing is, it must not be a PIA to use or maintain or it isn't going to &quot;fly&quot; -- in any sense of the word. If there's been a breakthrough in &quot;hot air&quot; engine technology, that could be a real boon to mankind.

For those who ask why this must be a transportation device, the answer is, obviously, that it may well be something else. However, the fact that the preponderance of speculation tends in this direction, and the excitement exhibited by the speculators, indicates that the time and circumstances are ripe for a new mode of transportation to appear. We have spent the better part of a century trying to get excited over &quot;new&quot; automotive designs that are, almost always, nothing more than rehashes of old designs. There has been incremental improvement (or sometimes UNimprovement) in personal vehicular design over time, but no real revolutions since the Model T. I think people are very excited at the prospect of personal transportation that costs a tenth of the cost of a really cheap car, that costs next to nothing to operate and insure, and which is much easier to use and park / store than the automobile. Whether such a design has anything to do with IT is something we'll learn eventually. But the ground swell of interest in the possibility that this is the advent of a revolutionary improvement in personal transportation makes it pretty obvious that this the type of device that COULD cause the sweeping changes predicted by the reporter.

Regards,
Jim

 

[G14]

If the patent that posted above is indeed IT I don't see it replacing cars but more so replacing walking, biking, rollerblading, ect... as means of transportation.

 

[Wah]

aznmist...

this thing is supposed to be revolutionary and is supposed to make him richer that bill gates. Do you really think its a scooter? I saw that drawing you're talking about, and nothing in the article said that was IT. If I remember correctly, it was labeled as a picture that was circulating around the net. I also recall a few weeks ago, a story about eminem being dead circulating around the net.... well he's not.

 

[MillionaireNextDoor]

i'd like to have one of those hoverboards as seen in &quot;back to the future II&quot;

 

[Paladinexe]

I saw a demonstration of the hover board (not on the movie screen no doubt). No strings, no magnets and reported by the news. The inventor himself explained them and how the parenting groups buried the idea.

 

[Soccerman]

But cold fusion would be better than ordinary fusion, because you don't have to build enourmous, reactor-type facilities to contain it.

uhh, who says cold fusion wouldn't need enourmous facilities? there's absolutely no proof of that, because first of all, there aren't any working cold fusion samples out there, and we have no idea how one will work, if it is ever accomplished.

EugFor the low pollution technology, there's nothing stopping us from developing public transport using similar technology. It does not have to be in a scooter. In fact, there are buses in Vancouver right now which run on hydrogen and the &quot;exhaust&quot; is water. (However, I'm ignoring the energy needed to create the hydrogen)

And, regardless of the technology in a scooter, it still ain't gonna work in a Toronto snowstorm. It's too damn cold and the slush is far too deep. I like the idea of the super small vehicles becoming available in Europe and China though. Too bad they'd have to fight against the housewife-driven SUVs around here.

yeah, like I mentioned before, Ballard Fuel Cells are the future for automobiles.. 2003 we'll start seeing some!

Ballard has sold busses to more then Vancouver I think too..

however the fuel cells for mass production in cars won't be directly fed from hydrogen, they will take gas, remove the Hydrogen from it, and the leftovers (similar to an Internal Combustion Engine, though alot cleaner, no metals or anything in the exhaust).

at least, they won't be fed directly from hydrogen, unless an alternative delivery system that delivers hydrogen like they do with Gas can be figured out, but that isn't too likely.

what I would like to see, is the use of Ethenol as a much larger part of gasoline (ever heard of Mohawk?), thus cleaning up emissions somewhat, and giving farmers another way to make money!

in fact, if Fuel Cells weren't the main focus right now, I think we'd be heading towards pushing Ethenol (spelling is wrong) as a much larger source for fuel in cars, becuase it is sustainable (it won't run out, as long as farmers create enough!).

 

[atsang]

Whatever it is, I'm gonna overclock it when it comes out.

 

[mikef208]

Sorry to burst everybodies bubble, but according to Kamen himself there is no &quot;IT&quot;. He recently gave a statement denying the inventions hype. He did say he has an invention in the works(possibly the scooter he put a patent in for), but he said it is not world changing or anything.

 

[fragarific]

I'm not reading all that. But, I bet it's about as helpful to society as the &quot;free $200&quot; in gas credits.

By the way, they are bankrupt now and hopefully in jail.

 

[callan]

Hamburger earmuffs?????? You mean he finally found the breakthrough to get the pickle matrix?