Old people give up their mobility way too fast, often because of depression, isolation, or sheer lack of anything to do. A device like this will only accelerate the process. Young or old, we all tend to perceive a certain level of exertion as unpleasant, even dangerous, and that level is well below the level of exertion required to keep us fit and healthy. Obviously we are very poorly adapted to living in an environment where physical exertion is optional. The more we make exertion optional, the faster our bodies will degenerate.
Funny, I saw it and thought fat people in wal-mart. This could revolutionize the electric shopping cart industry, much as the segway turned the airport police patrol and guided tour sectors on their ears almost a decade agoe.
While Honda, Toyota, and many companies in the Japanese robotics space do devote quite a lot of resources to thinking about the elderly population, a significant amount of the R&D work done is not done with the intent of being immediately productizable, but rather to do basic R&D and to fly the company flag. (See Asimo or, indeed, any robot which looks remotely like a human. Or the gigantic eight-legged spider robot who existed to wave a large fan at people that my tech incubator made, which existed to say "Look at us, we're capable of making a gigantic semi-autonomous eight legged robot with one functional limb which you could mount all sorts of things that are not cooling devices on.")
Additionally, your arms are free which is a big win, and at least in the video, it didn't require wearing a helmet. I think they've made leaps and bounds over the smug issue.
It looks like this only targets indoor super smooth surfaces, but I think it could definitely find a niche.
i guess that's why such technologies take a while to get broadly adopted. i think in 10 or 20 years almost everybody might use those, and segway will look kinda old-school.
I think this has more practical use whereas Segway is like an expensive car. Show this to any caretaker looking after people with stroke, disabilities etc. I am sure they will find it useful. Think about how many falls this can prevent indoors? They probably need to cap the max speed for old people to their walking speed. A back rest will be nice.
A part of me thinks that Honda has solved the problem of walking. Something evolution solved a long time ago. The evolved solution also allows us to go up steps!
While it's cool it seems like there is a long way to go before it's useful/cost effective.
None of the above undermines the technology btw, just the application.
Another thing about this particular execution is that it is still not cool. It's even worse than the conventional segway: you necessarily sit shorter than everyone around you which will make an impact. We as a species favor tall individuals on a subconscious level (think of US presidents). Whatever alternate mode of locomotion is to be created, it needs to be cool. Think jetpacks.
I actually think that it's better than the Segway for making you slightly shorter. One of the problems with the Segway is that the increased height (and width) makes you so conspicuous as to practically be flaunting your use of it, and how independent you are from the lowly ambulating masses.
Whereas someone riding a Vespa can still come off as cool. (Though they'll immediately look silly next to someone on a Harley.)
Well, yes. Someone sitting lower than others around him/her is not necessarily bad: think driving a Ferrari vs walking down the street. But this thing does not look cool. It looks more like you are somehow incapacitated (I think some other comments mention knee injuries). Even a hover chair from the Austin Powers movies would be better. Jetpacks would be ideal.
Accidental acceleration will have a whole new set of consequences.
No-one has topped motor assist on a bicycle yet. It's fun and useful to be able to move 20+ mph all day without being a top-notch athlete (or while wearing business clothes).
What a waste. I want one. I'm so conflicted. Does wanting to buy consumer oriented yet entirely unnecessary products make me more American, dumb or both?
In the mall near me all the security personnel rides around on "conventional" segways, presumably to get to whatever issue arises faster. Mind you the mall is a two story mall with stairs and escalators. What exactly happens if the security office is on the bottom floor and the issue that needs immediate attention is on the top floor? I imagine ditching the segway would be a bad idea.
This is infinitely more maneuverable, especially in the house e.g. the kitchen. A house has to be made wheelchair-compatible. This avoids that cost. And makes you look more human.
I think, for more or less healthy people (being able to walk) it's the opposite what would be usefull, not sitting/being passive when we were once moving/using our muscles, but running/using muscles when we were once just sitting (more or less passively), I remember a standing desk with a running treadmill underneath as a nice example.
I'm not particularly impressed by the chair (references to both pg's Segway essay and the fat people in Wall.E come to mind), but I'm very interested in the omniwheel technology.
Imagine a wheelchair with one omnidirectional wheel instead of four. That'd make a world of difference for disabled people!
Are you sure? This omniwheel is novel because the rollers are powered. This is the first device I've seen that can move in any direction with a single wheel.
Segway is Dean Kamen's company, not the product. The product is the Human Transporter (or HT). They make other things, too, including the Segway Centaur.
But this is kind of what you do when you walk. Walking is effectively controlled falling.
People moving on this device are probably just thinking "move forward" rather than "lean forward", in the same way as we turn left or right by (subconsciously) leaning slightly on a bicycle.
Note how they didn't let us hear how it sounds, but they visually suggested that one could tour an art gallery. I'm guessing it sounds almost as menacing as Big Dog.
What's wrong with using your legs?