Top secret invention greater than the computer?

[dcdomain]

Here's another look:

http://www.delphion.com/cgi-bin/viewpat.cmd/WO00075001A1

This one looks a little more up to date... didn't really go through all of it, but the picture from this one is similar to the picture from the previous post, just missing some wheels.

Abstract:
"A class of transportation vehciles for carrying an individual (10) over ground having a surface that may be irregular. Various embodiments have a motorized drive, mounted to the ground-contacting module (6) that causes operation of the vehicle in an operating position that is unstable with respect to tipping when the motorized drive arrangement is not powered. Related methods are provided."

Ok... so a motorized scooter. Seen those before, but never with two wheels on one axle. At first I was wondering how it would balance, but then I remembered that the handicap chair that he came up with was also able to stand on two wheels...

I'd like to see some real photos and videos of this thing operating. From the picture and the abstract, I can't see how this is everything the other articles stated it would be.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

I doubt that's it, but I definitely want one of those too

 

[Chad]

IT.

Independant Transportation.

 

[dcdomain]

Chad.. nice observation... but now, what is it independent from?

Hehehe, independent from the ground? A hover scooter!?! SWEET!
Independent from fossil fuel? Solar power... ok... big deal, large buildings in the city will block out much sun.
Independent from the operator? Ok... don't get that...

 

[SSP]

It's a butt plug.

anyway...

It's really a teleportation device.

Point A - Scans your whole body's atomic structure. Then send the information to Point B in a 56K modem.

Point B - Taking couple of hundred of years to transfer the information, point B then replicate your atomic structure, and off you go.





Anyway.. I still think its a scam. U wait and see Skippy... err I mean Zippy... U just wait!!!

 

[jsbush]

Nothing NOTHING NOTHING can be greater then a computer NOTHING!

Sorry I'm just sort of a HUGE computer nerd

 

[Blackhawk2]

SSP, if it was a scam I doubt Steve Jobs would have any part of it.

 

[Playmaker]

It's a hoax I'll bet. Why is it so hard to believe Steve Jobs would be involved in a hoax? Anyone can be bought.

 

[DavidHood]

I know what IT is since I already have IT and have come back in time to kill Sarah Conner...err nevermind wrong movie

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

whatever it is, it's certainly not bs!!! While i am skeptical as to whether or not it will bo SOO revolutionary, it will be significant. However, the statement that this Kumen guy will be richer than bill gates in 5 years is kinda hard to swallow.

 

[Bluga]

Inexpensive Transportation.

 

[Bluga]

Inexpensive Transportation.

 

[Soccerman]

I'll believe it when i see it no i'm kidding...I didn't have a problem with computing that data...just how do you GET it...and then what do you use to just "make it out of thin air" when you teleport something. I have no doubt it's possible to process billions and billions of atoms...but wtf are they going to do? Scan the person in?! Or use their photon-laser blasters and zap 'em in? That's just the part I don't understand.

well they HAVE already transported quantum states of atomic particles (if I remember correctly). all you are really doing is somehow reading the quantum state (which is AFAIK VERY hard, seing as Quantum Physics is based on likelyhood, rather then certainty) of the existing particle.

before hand though, as far as I remember, you have to have a twin of every particle you want to 'transport' created (I could be totally off, but I don't keep up too well in Quantum Physics), thus, whatever happens to the one particle, happens instantaneously to the twin (faster then light!).

of course, I am no expert in this field, I'm still having trouble figuring out WTF Webbers and Teslas are in Magnetics.. I'm trying to get their ASAP though!

jaywallen Quantum physics applied to consumer devices? Gee, I don't think so. An incredible effort in environmental control and the development of the observational paradigm is required to even detect the physical signs that hint at the physics of these entities, much less find a practical application for them.

I'm assuming you are talking about individual particles, correct?

and are you talking about Quarks etc?

AFAIK, that isn't quite what is needed.. you know that you have protons, neutrons, and electrons, all of which have the same content as any other proton, neutron, or electron (an electron is an electron is an electron).

however, I don't know what the word Quantum state actually means, so I cannot speculate without REALLY putting myself on a limb..

Teleportation and anti-gravity? Uh, not even in the conceptual stages. Science fiction, or perhaps fantasy is more appropriate. Unless you're referring to some rather limited field effects which, again, have no pragmatic application for personal transportation devices, anti-gravity is a bust.

as for Anti Gravity, I'm pretty sure people on this forum are really talking more about levitation capability using principles such as magnetism.

why magnetism? alot of what we need for real good, less expensive maglevs are superconducting magnets at room temperature. did you know Hydrogen can become a superconductor when subjected to extreme pressure (the atoms become so close together that the electrons flow freely). of course, that is extreme pressure.. the best we've been able to get was enough to get it CLOSE, but it was only temporary, and it only got to liqued form, not solid!

however, many MANY combinations of atoms, molecules, etc, have to be tested.. we have so many combinations to try, we're bound to find SOMETHING!

similar to Fuel cell technology, people thought it wouldn't become cost effective enough (the best proton exchange membrane I think is platinum), but with major research, Ballard has reduced the amount required to keep efficiency up, and costs down.

Magnetic repulsion for lift / field crawl for propulsion, eh faintly possible, but definitely requiring external power sources, as with Mag-Levs.

can you go more into this, so I can understand the reasoning behind what you are saying..

 

[SSP]

I'll believe it when I see it. I don't have any respect for Steve jobs, so I can't really trust him.

We'll see...

 

[zippy]

SSP, I am not peanut butter! :|

Heheh.

 

[jaywallen]

The patent documentation is interesting, but the drawings are disappointing. I can't imagine that the people involved would think that this type of scooter would attract anyone other than the young. They seem to be claiming that the majority of urban populations would use "IT" / "Ginger". I can't see the average Joe / Josephine hopping on the thing depicted in those patent papers.

I like my idea of the unicycle with an enclosed operator space within the wheel. Probably not much, if any, harder to implement than the device depicted in the patent papers. More expensive, of course, because of the increased complexity and materials requirements.

The side-by-side wheel arrangement is interesting, though. I'm gonna look at the papers more carefully in the morning when I have my wits about me. (I saved the page images to disk.) The concept, though kind of corny looking on paper, has unbelievable implications -- if it works. Some rather bizarre vehicles could result from this line of thinking. I love it when someone pokes a stick into the puddle and stirs up the water!

Regards,
Jim

 

[XeonTux]

divinemartyr wrote the following while high on crack:
...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 "unsafe"...

Um, I think they may have said that at the end of the movie as a JOKE. Here is the board. Tell me, do you really think this will hover?




BUT there have been some really kick-ass technological breakthroughs lately that will soon put flying cars in our garages soon...at least those of us (not me) with the money for 'em. Check out http://www.moller.com/ who seems to be damn close! Sweeeet!

 

[jaywallen]

XeonTux,

Aha, another Moller fan. The concept seems fantastical, but the FAA appears to be taking him seriously. Too bad THESE babies aren't going to be available for $2,000!!!

Moller has been working on this idea for a long time. The obstacles are incredible, particularly for what he wants to achieve -- use by the masses. The control systems would have to be truly exceptional designs. If he pulls it off, we'll all be living in Jetson land!

Regards,
jim

 

[SSP]

jaywallen, Please tell me its not a scooter. If it is... I was right. (doubt it's going to be a scooter... it better be a flying car! )

 

[Octoberblue]

Consider this:
IT, will..
?have a big, broad impact not only on social institutions but some billion-dollar old-line companies.? And the invention will ?profoundly affect our environment and the way people live worldwide. It will be an alternative to products that are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities.?

And especially this:

? Kamen fears, as he states in a letter to Kemper that is included in the proposal, that ?huge corporations? might catch wind of the invention and ?use their massive resources to erect obstacles against us or, worse, simply appropriate the technology by assigning hundreds of engineers to catch up to us, and thousands of employees to produce it in their plants.?

Okay, it looks like we're going all the way into the x-files/sci-fi/government-conspiracy/ufo/secret society/hollywood mode here, so I'll share a true story and see if anyone else out there remembers this.

The year was around 1987 or 88, I can't remember which. I was a student at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, TN. One afternoon at my fraternity house, I happened to catch a tidbit of the noonday news, which was broadcast there out of an affiliate in Nashville.

The report, which LED the news that day, was this: "Two scientists in Nevada say that have achieved cold fusion!" Observers were scheduled to go out there and check out the situation. Nothing else was mentioned on it until the next day, when it was reported that one of the scientists had either announced or issued a statement (I can't remember which but they didn't have video on it) that there had been a mistake of some kind in their findings.

What really startled me about it was that no one ever asked any more questions about it and the story was never, I mean never mentioned again. To my knowledge nothing more has been said about it to this day.

Old-line, billion dollar companies? Dirty? Environmental Issues?.... Oil? No, I'm not a left-wing paranoid environmentalist radical or anything. But would anyone be surprised if cold-fusion
had actually been achieved in the 80's, that some big company used big-bucks and death-threats to cover it up?

 

[XeonTux]

heh, I remember after I first saw the moller site, I was dreaming of those things for like a month straight. even more than sex. well, maybe just a couple days where I thought of these more than sex.

 

[alphaIII]

well hell.. if this thing costs 2000 dollars it seemingly can't seem to be a transportation device.. something like that would be millions and millions.. and the government WOULD take control of all that.. anything can fit into duffel bags these days.. even fembots (oohh.. maybe it's that.. we could always use more vanessa kensingtons..) now if cities will be built around it then it has to deal with the two most powerful things in the world: money or sex..

personally i want it to be a replicator like in star trek. give zapping a whole new meaning....

 

[johnjohn320]

I just heard about this 10 mins ago on my local news, and personally, I think we're all being led on. Hype, hype, hype. Yes, it's a respected inventor, but what's the point of telling everyone about a revolutionary machine, but not telling them what it is? If you're not going to tell them, why say anything?

 

[Soccerman]

heh, I refer to what I posted before... I'm really into conspiracy now for some reason:

perhaps this is only a passive poll. your company posts this piece of well made pr, and watches people interpret it. people see in this pr what they want to see, just like those ink blot things for psychology. only this way, you get honest answers, becuase that's what people really think!

 

[DJ_Donut]

something like a linear motor skateboard?