Bummed about your 25-minute walk to Ag Hall? Nervous about squeezing through traffic on the corner of Charter and University on your moped? With the invention of the Segway Human Transporter, the buzz is that by late 2002 consumers could make their pedestrian life up to three times more efficient. However, some experts disagree.
Dean Kamen, founder of Segway LLC in Manchester, N.H., has developed the first self-balancing, electric-powered transportation device. The Segway Human Transporter, he claims, will allow people to make better use of their time, interact with others more easily and ultimately live better lives.
No larger than the average human body and able to carry up to 75 additional pounds of cargo, the device can travel at speeds up to 12.5 miles per hour, cutting the average pedestrian’s walking time.
However, UW civil and environmental engineering professor Robert Smith questions the practicality of the Segway.
“Introducing a new mode of transportation is always risky,” Smith said. “I think with the Segway we’d see lots of institutional problems. We’d have pedestrians, Segway users, bicycles, and cars all using the same space.
The device balances through a technology Segway calls dynamic stabilization. While humans use their inner ear, visual perception, brain and muscles to balance and move, the Segway HT makes use of gyroscopes and tilt sensors, software and circuit boards and a high-powered electric motor to complete the same sense of balance with the transporter. When the person using the transporter leans slightly forward, the Segway HT moves slightly forward. The further they lean, the faster they go.
Often, a person subconsciously shifts their point of equilibrium simply by thinking of moving forward, backward or stopping. Therefore, often by picturing a stop sign in the distance, a rider can make the Segway HT come to a graceful stop. By twisting their wrist, they can pirouette in place. The machine senses and reacts to subtle shifts in the rider’s balance and consequently never allows the rider to fall over.
Since last January when information regarding the Segway HT was leaked to the website Inside.com, the invention was the most-speculated-about secret in the tech world. Previously referred to as “IT” or “Ginger,” curiosity grew as Kamen perfected it both mechanically and legally before introducing it to the public. Unveiled Dec. 5, it has sparked intense conversation and debate.
“It won’t beam you up to Mars or turn lead into gold. So sue me,” Kamen said in an interview with Time.com.
The question of exactly how much impact this machine will have is quite controversial. Still, many critics who scored sneak peeks at the top-secret invention are still confident that the Segway HT will be “as big as the PC” and “bigger than the Internet.”
Smith said he disagrees.
“The technology is just incredible,” he said. “I’d love to try
one. But if this is a toy, it’s an awfully expensive one. In five years, I still predict the market penetration will be relatively small.”
Smith also said other modes of transportation may prove to be more cost-effective, including bicycles and mopeds, but mail carriers and factory workers may be more apt to use the Segway.
Whether the environment-friendly Segway HT will be more common than the bicycle or replace the car for short-distance traveling is yet to be determined. Kamen, however, seems enthusiastically confident.
“It makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-pound piece of metal to haul their 150-pound asses around town,” he told Time.com.
