An Inventor Unveils His Mysterious
An Inventor Unveils His Mysterious Personal Transportation Device
The mystery transportation device being developed by the award-winning inventor Dean Kamen — the subject of continuous fevered speculation since provocative clues and predictions surfaced in media reports last January — is not hydrogen- powered, a favored theory in Internet discussions. Nor does it run on a superefficient Stirling engine (yet). But if the public's collective yearning for Jetsonian travel technology must remain unrequited this week, at least the speculators will have their curiosity satisfied. Mr. Kamen plans to demonstrate today a two-wheeled battery-powered device designed for a single standing rider. Its chief novelty lies in the uncanny effect, produced by a finely tuned gyroscopic balancing mechanism, of intuiting where its rider wants to go — and going there.
A self-balancing golf cart for one, in other words. It's called the Segway Human Transporter.
