Top secret invention greater than the computer?

[yo2tup]

:Q :Q :Q

is that for reals?

 

[StickHead]

<< a combination of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison >>



Yeah, this should be good.

 

[shiznut123]

shoes that have wheels?

 

[Renob]

OMG if thats real its going to drive me crazy trying to guess what it is. BTW I just started my IT fund so I will have the money to buy one the day they go on sell......Yahoooooooo

 

[GL]

Shamelessly ripped from the MSNBC BBS:



<< Subject:
From:
Host:
Date: READ THIS ARTICLE. This is OLD News
The Truth
147.zonelabs.com
Tue Jan 9 18:23:50

Ok Folks... here is your answer... this is NOT a top
secret project, the writers at MSNBC and the other web
page are morons..

From an old Wired Magazine Article about Dean Kamen...
-------------------------------------------
When he watched a man in a wheelchair try to negotiate a
curb in the late '80s, Kamen wondered whether he could
build a chair that would hop curbs without losing its
balance. After $50 million and eight years in
development, the Ibot Transporter - a six-wheeled robotic
&quot;mobility system&quot; that can climb stairs, traverse
sandy and rocky terrain, and raise its user to eye-level
with a standing person - is undergoing FDA trials, and
should be available by 2001, at a cost of $20,000. That
may sound high, but keep in mind that the Ibot erases the
need to retrofit a home for a wheelchair. Plus, mobility
system is if anything an understatement: In June, Kamen
saddled up his Ibot and climbed the stairs from a Paris
M&eacute;tro station to the restaurant level of the Eiffel Tower
- then promptly called John Doerr on his cell phone.

&quot;At first blush, you'd stay away from developing
something like the Ibot, just because of the legal
implications,&quot; says Woodie Flowers, a mechanical
engineering professor at MIT and a friend of Kamen's.
&quot;You're going to put a human in it and it'll go up
stairs? That's nuts. But he did it. He's not one to get
caught up in conventional wisdom.&quot;

When things work out, Kamen basks in his success. On a
frosty day last winter, I followed him around downtown
Manchester as he took an Ibot out for a spin. The Ibot
moved so fast that I had to break into a trot just to
keep up. It not only operates in four-wheel drive - a
standard motorized wheelchair has two-wheel drive - but
it has a &quot;balance mode,&quot; in which the front
wheels rise up, balancing the Ibot upward, like a dog
begging for a treat.

The chair's dual processors direct the grounded wheels to
move back and forth slightly, compensating for weight
shifts. The Ibot is so stable in balance mode that its
occupant can even win a shoving match with just about any
human.

In front of First headquarters, I watched as a crowd of
gawkers stopped Kamen to admire the Ibot. One man asked
how the chair works: &quot;Does it just balance with
weights?&quot; Kamen - at eye-level with the guy,
balancing on two wheels - paused a moment and smiled.
&quot;Technically,&quot; he said, &quot;it's magic.&quot;


Blah blah blah.. the article goes on to mention other
junk he is working on.

Satisfied? What a waste of disk-space this BBS is. >>



-GL

 

[zippy]

NaughtyusMaximus, I'd like to see someone build a puppet and a SUIT in 10 minutes with only a few basic tools.

 

[zippy]

GL, the mention the Ibot in the MSNBC article- why would EVERYONE want one and why would it change cities? Heh, not everyone is handicapped.

 

[TimeKeeper]

Unless super conductor able work under room temperature, othwise, I don't think it could change the world.

 

[Kitros]

I am!

I'm thinking some sort of telepathy device!

Think that while reading it! A skew, but hey, still fits!

 

[PieDerro]

GL: I think it was mentioned in that article that he had invented this all-terrain wheel-chair in one of his prior projects. I think this one is secret for sure.

 

[DainBrammage]

Well what rolls down stairs alone or in pairs......

It better than bad ITS WOOD...

He ripped the LOG from Ren and Stimpy Amazing how cartoons can predict the future life like some sort of freakish Tarrort reading.

Think about it if every man woman and child in a big city had only one LOG in rush time traffic...



Yep a LOG JAM thats why the city planners are gettting involved

 

[yo2tup]

I'm telling you guys, it's the Razor 2 by Sharper Image. The hoover scooter with a wheelie-bar

 

[divinemartyr]

I'm a big fan of technology. I absolutely love reading about things like this. It's hard to tell, in this day and age, if any of this stuff is really going on but here are my possible theories.

First, one person mentioned anti-gravity. This could be helpful, but as many of us know, superconductors have played a part in anti-gravity for many years, even the hoverboards in Back to the Future II were actual working models made by Mattel. These boards were rejected by parents and seen to be &quot;unsafe&quot;. I don't think this device has anything to do with anti-gravity, and if it does, it's something that may not potentially be &quot;safe&quot; which the article claims to replace something sometimes unsafe.

A super-efficient fuel cell also does not replace something sometimes unsafe. I'm making a big assumption here in assuming the object &quot;sometimes dirty and unsafe&quot; is a car and I think several would agree with me on this.

Jet packs would not replace things dirty OR unsafe as they would cause pollution and the ability to use them effectively is probably near impossible.

Since this technology is more important than the PC, I'm also making a rather large assumption that this technology has much of nothing to do with computers, or the internet.

My personal belief is that this is some sort of revolutionary transportation device. First it would replace the car. Second, everyone will want one. No one likes to pay high prices for airline tickets, spend $2000 on one of these devices and you'll have paid for it in 7-10 round trips. It could be teleportation. Rather far-fetched at the risk of sounding trekkish, this seems unlikely. Time travel is definitely not on the horizon. So what does that leave? The ability to travel at the speed of light by some molecular transformation? Who knows. I honestly have no idea but I have a pretty good idea as to what IT is not.

divinemartyr

 

[goofy2000]

It's a... teddy bear... mmm..teddy..

 

[IamDavid]

IT = Instant Transport?
IT = Individual Transport?


I really wish you wouldn't have posted this because I will now be thinking of this 24/7 till it is reviled in 2K4.

 

[WoundedWallet]

Without even reading the article I can tell it's a nuclear powered Individual Transportation device.

Cities will have to become more spread out because after each crash a small thermo-nuclear explosion would happen and.... you know what I mean. Wider cities = more survivors.

Either that or motorized LazyBoy. I actually once dreamed of being on a freeway on my bed. I don't know how I made turns, but it was pretty confortable.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Well, I know one thine, this guy is amazing. I've read about him several other times before there was any of this &quot;IT&quot; stuff floating around. He lives in NY, but he attempted to secced from the state when they wouldn't let him do something weird with his house. He (jokingly) signed a peace treaty with former president Bush (while he was still president). He owns several helecopters, and the wheelchair he invented is incredible.

I won't even try to speculate about what this could be, but I can't wait to find out.

 

[amnesiac]

IT is messing with my head. For goodness sake, TELL US WHAT &quot;IT&quot; IS!!!

 

[wolf550e]

if its not Cold Fusion, i am not interested

 

[ganesha]

Hamburger earmuffs!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Czar]

well its not the Ibot thats for sure because they mention that in the article.


<< Kamen?s most recent invention is the iBot, an off-road wheelchair that can climb stairs, cover sand and gravel and rise to balance on two wheels. >>


It deffinetly has something to do with transport, because it has a T in the name and there is a multimillion (or was it billion) industry that would do anything to stop it or make their own version of it. So it might be the car industry or the fuel industry.

 

[Adul]

I would love to know what it is also.

 

[ChrisIsBored]

c'mon guys, it's so obvious!

Robotic hookers!

<< If enough people see the machine you won?t have to convince them to architect cities around it. It?ll just happen. >>

'Nuff said... look at the way guys stare and girls now anyways...


<< The core technology and its implementations? will, according to Kamen, ?have a big, broad impact not only on social institutions but some billion-dollar old-line companies.?

Imagine your clients much much much happier


<<And the invention will ?profoundly affect our environment and the way people live worldwide.'

No more driving to visit the g/f or take her to places you don't want to go anyways = less car use, and less pollution



<<It will be an alternative to products that are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities.? >>

Yea you know how many STD's the real ones carry?


<< . The invention will also likely require ?meeting with city planners, regulators, legislators, large commercial companies and university presidents about how cities, companies and campuses can be retro-fitted for Ginger.? >>

More hotel rooms to be built near every street corner!



Yup I can't wait...

 

[Davegod75]

<T = Instant Transport>
= Individual Transport>

is what i'm guessing too...

why's he waiting so long to tell us?

Oh..shiznut....shoes on wheels?? wouldn't that be roller skates

 

[mosdef]

I'm sure it's an electric version of his wheelchair, a powered device that balances itself on two wheels. There will be stations around cities where the chairs could be recharged. The dirty thing he refers to is obviously polluting cars.

-mosdef