I think saying that “IT has been revealed” is a tad presumtuous. It looks to me like someone just did a US Patent search using Dean Kamen’s name and found a scooter patent.
Count me in with the “I don’t think that’s Ginger but if it is, some very prominent people need their heads examined” contingent.
In the new issue of Popular Mechanics (just on newsstands in the Toronto area), there is mention of a flying car with electrically-driven fans. This does not seem to be on the PM website yet.
Given a sufficiently-compact and light power source, this vehicle could be less complex and therefore cheaper than the Moller volantor, though they’d still have to pass through the whole airworthiness-approval process.
Moller seem to have a good view of the issues around personal VTOL aircraft (i.e. flying cars); they admit that the real work that needs to be done is setting up air-traffic control systems and regulations that can handle their large-scale use, implying a LOT more training and regulation for a lot more pilots, or implimentation of automated piloting systems.
Combined with the architectural implications of wide-scale use of personal flying wehicles (rooftop landing pads are just the beginning), I’d say this counts as a ‘redesign of cities’.
So… my guess is that, if IT lives up to ITs hype at all, IT is most likely a very small, energy-dense, and rugged electrical power source. This would work with existing technologies to make vehicles much more efficient, and would make the existing barely-achievable fan-driven flying cars dramatically more doable.
No new ‘hover’ technology would be necessary for change. However, that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t mind seeing it.
And I agree with Alphagene: “Count me in with the ‘I don’t think that’s Ginger but if it is, some very prominent people need their heads examined’ contingent.”
I agree with all of the people above me…a one wheeled scooter won’t “sell itself.” But I wouldn’t expect that ‘IT’ is a Mr. Fusion-Generator-In-The-Palm-Of-Your-Hand, either. I doubt it will be anything of the flying variety, becuase the amount of energy needed to keep our asses off the ground is too great…if there is a flying vehicle, I’d strip it down for it’s power plant. And, what kind of flying vehicle would cost $2000. Who are you kidding?
It’s almost the definition of hype that what it is about, falls short of the hype about it.
Even if this isn’t Ginger, I don’t expect it to be anything more spectacular. Don’t fall for hype.
Flying computer-specifically a solar-powered, very local and low altitude personal transportation device – such as a flying motor scooter or scaled-down Jetsons-like craft-- with a wireless Web tablet on the dashboard.
The solar receptor will be on top of the unit --hooked up to a power-collection unit. The device will also contain a battery pack for emergency power. The device will be controlled via a wireless connection to a central control unit in the specific metro area. The device will have a Web Tablet for voice-powered commands and simple functions, such as writing and sending e-mail, and perhaps, given Jeff Bezos’ expressed interest, some e-commerce functionality. All the voice recognition algorithms, programs and apps will be housed on the server side.
The inventor says it will remake cities, and address pollution needs. Since Jobs and Bezos are interested as well, what this tells us is we are looking at a device that enables a combination of non-polluting, flexible transportation and mobile, Web-based communication.
Just a guess, but if I am right, I fully expect to be kidnapped by armed thugs – or, at least, sued. But I know nothing. I am only guessing.
elucidator wrote:
Funny you should mention that. The main page of http://www.fuckedcompany.com right now already has a denouncement of TurboScooter.com on it.
Russjourn: Your guess is wrong. A low-speed, low altitude flying machine would consume huge gobs of energy. We’re talking solar cells larger than a football field. The only solar aircraft to ever fly were extremely light, with extremely long wings and giant, high-efficiency propellors.
Forget about any flying machines. The Moller Volantor has been scheduled to fly “in several months” for over 10 years now. And it’s still never even left the ground, let alone managed to get through what would be the most complex and difficult FAA certification process in history.
If the IT machine is any kind of unicycle, forget it. I’d rather ride a powered bicycle or a scooter, where I have a windshield to keep bugs out of my teeth and saddlebags to carry my lunch and briefcase.
These types of ‘personal’ vehicles never make it to the mass market, simply because they aren’t practical. Most people aren’t going to put on their business suit and get on a scooter and ride it 30 miles. Practical vehicles need to be safe, they have to protect the occupants from weather, and they need to be able to carry some amount of cargo and passengers.
There have been some really innovative ‘personal vehicles’. My favorite is a small ‘car’ that is built around a motorcycle chassis. It has two wheels, but a fully enclosed cockpit that looks a bit like the inside of a cool sports car. It’s weatherproof and heated. Since you can’t put your foot out to hold the bike up when you stop, it has custom outrigger wheels that automatically deploy when the speed drops below the controllable level, and retract when you start driving again. The driver doesn’t even know they are there. It also has two seats.
This vehicle is completely road-worthy, accelerates like a high performance sports car, gets the mileage of a motorcycle, and only cost about $6,000, if I recall correctly. But the thing never made it in the market. A handful of enthusiasts drive them and love them, but the average person just thinks it’s scary, strange, and dangerous.
Inventors often underestimate the inertia of a fixed infrastructure, and the conservatism of the average person when confronted with something truly radical.
Um, what’s the name of this wonder device? I’ve heard of the <A HREF = “http://www.corbinmotors.com/sparrow.htm”>Sparrow</A>, but they are a lot more than $6k…
S
What did I screw up re:HTML??
HTML is turned off on this board; you have to use vB Code
:o I’m an idiot. Thank god I don’t have to drive a gyroscopic unicycle. :j
Come to think of it… The ‘IT’ gyro-stabilization technology would allow you to build a motorcycle that is stable while idling. That means you could build a car body around it, because you wouldn’t need to stick your foot out to stabilize yourself.
So imagine a sports car with two wheels that looks like the nose of an F-16, weighs 500 lbs, and gets 100 mpg. It holds two people in tandem like a jet fighter.
With that kind of efficiency, electric vehicles would be practical. Wrap a roll cage around the occupants and put an airbag in front, and it’s even safe.
It’d be faster than most sports cars, and cost somewhere between a good bike and a decent car. And you could park two of them in a normal parking space, relieving one of the major sources of congestion in busy areas. It might be the ultimate commuter vehicle.
Interesting bit of info found out today:
Some people think that “Ginger” is a form of transportation because Kanem’s wheelchair dealie was apparently codenamed “Fred”.
That’s not exactly hard evidence either way, I just think it’s funny.
I don’t see an invention that will ‘revolutionize’ anything.
If this invention really were so groundbreaking and earth-shattering and water-shedding, why would any inventor take the time who announce it before it was -already- patented and ready for production?
This whole mystery ‘IT’ thing is clearly just a marketing hype.
But hey, I once drank my own urine because I was curious. So maybe my mind isn’t all there. 
-Ashley
Sorry to give this a bump, but I really would like to know what the name of this mystery vehicle is. I’ll take two.
Another thing. Would you really want to stand on a commute to work? Standing on a scooter would kill your back after awhile. I doubt this is really “IT”, unless this is perhaps a demonstration of a real invention (perhaps some sort of propulsion system, etc). Maybe the point is that the scooter is only the packaging, there to draw your interest.
I think this vehicle was/is built by BMW, I remember seeing it on some TV show. I don’t recall if it was a production vehicle or just a prototype. I thought the cost was over $6000. The one they showed was over in Europe somewhere, maybe Sweden or something, any Europeans hear of this.
Here is a motorcycle with a roll cage by BMW, not what Sam Stone was describing but same idea.
http://www.bmw.co.uk/C1/
I also agree that IT is no better than an electric or gas powered scooter.
people, don’t believe the hype- at least not all of it. If you look at the original article linked on the “Bigger than a breadbox” thread, you’ll realize that the most effusive praise comes from three main people:
John Doerr, “pre-eminent Silicon Valley venture capitalist”
Dean Kamen, inventor of IT
Steve Kemper, author of a book about Kamen/IT
All three are pumping this shit up to a crazy degree. Do you know why Kamen is keeping it a secret until 2002? I doubt it’s to stop industrial espionage. More likely, he and Doerr are hyping the market in hopes of offering up a company, probably by IPO.
Listen to these quotes, and keep in mind what these fine men are trying to do.
Doerr said Kamen is a combination of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. he had been sure that he wouldn’t see the development of anything in his lifetime as important as the World Wide Web – until he saw IT.
Kamen says IT’s “core technology and its implementations” will “have a big, broad impact not only on social institutions but some billion-dollar old-line companies” and will "profoundly affect our environment and the way people live worldwide."
Kemper attests the invention will “sweep over the world and change lives, cities, and ways of thinking” and will 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."
What does Kemper get out of it? Well, **“The Internet changed the world, too” said one editor who considered the project, “but books about it don’t really sell.”
Jobs and Bezos, on the other hand, are said in Kemper’s press release to have been drawn magnetically to IT’s magnificence and extraordinarity like moths to a flame. More likely, they have a cut of the future shares, and/or are getting paid exorbidant bogs of cash, and/or had their quotes taken kind of out of context and blown up.
btw, I think it’s maybe like the one-man scooter thing. maybe even a better one-man scooter thing. If you really stretch, you could see that if everybody owned one, cities would be structured differently, with everybody living in tight clusters easily and quickly navigated at 15 to 25 miles an hour. Caras would be a thing of the past (that is, forgetting how bad one-man one-wheeled scooters are for lugging around heavy shit like luggage and mattresses and pallets of canned goods.
later, jb
erm, the last two paragraphs should have no bolding on them, and the last paragraph should have a closing parenthese. Also, “Caras” should be “cars”. I think that’s everything then.
jb
I’ve been searching the web for a reference to the two-wheeled car I was talking about, but I haven’t been able to find it.
I originally saw it on an episode of “Beyond 2000”, an Australian ‘futurist’ show that highlights new gadgets and technology. This episode was from about 1996 or so. They showed a number of these vehicles cruising around. It said that they were actually in production, and that there was a small enthusiast group.
The thing had a rounded nose, and a cylindrical fuselage with a canopy that swung open to the side on hinges. You climbed in as if it were a fighter plane, and sat semi-recumbent in the cockpit. It was fully road-legal, with all turn signals, reverse lights, etc. The main feature that made it work were a couple of speed-controlled outrigger wheels that automatically deployed and retracted as needed to keep the vehicle stable.
I’ll keep looking around for it, and if I find it I’ll post a link.