What is IT??

[djb]

I must be living under a rock because this is the first I've heard of this - err "IT."

Chasing IT

Good Morning America to Unveil Mystery Invention

Nov. 30 — It all started in January, when word leaked out that a publisher had paid a $250,000 advance for a book about IT, a device by inventor Dean Kamen that the editor said could transform our lives, our cities and our thinking.

Scientists and tycoons were the only ones who had seen IT.

"You know it's more important than pantyhose, and it's more important than the Internet," said Bob Metcalfe, a fellow inventor and founder of 3Com Corporation, who spoke to Good Morning America in an interview last January.

"Bigger than the Internet you say?" anchor Charlie Gibson asked.

"If it works out in terms of its impact on the economy and the environment, yes," Metcalfe replied.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs got an early look, as did Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com. Bezos laughed so hard when he saw IT that he fell off his chair, but both men were sworn to secrecy about what IT was.

"While [Kamen] has shared it with me, he also asked very strongly to keep it to myself and I'm certainly not going to let that confidence down," Bezos said.

In search of IT, ABCNEWS' correspondent Don Dahler paid a visit to where Kamen lives and works in New Hampshire. Kamen is responsible for devising the heart stent used on Vice President Dick Cheney, and for creating portable insulin pumps and inventing the iBot, a wheelchair that climbs stairs.

Kamen had code-named the iBot "Fred." His code name for IT? Ginger.

IT Is a Guessing Game

It has been a full year of guessing: What is IT? In offices and cafés, regular folks and techies alike started hazarding guesses as to what IT might be.

"I'm hoping it's some kind of jetpack... that would be fun," said one woman.

Good Morning America's news anchor Antonio Mora did an interview with Kamen, but didn't get too far.

"So it isn't cold fusion?" Mora asked.

"It is not cold fusion," Kamen said.

"It's not going to beam Scotty anywhere?" Mora pressed.

"It's not going to beam Scotty anywhere," Kamen said.

"It's not a better mousetrap?" Mora asked, giving it one last shot.

"And it's not a better mousetrap," Kamen said.

Watch Monday's Good Morning America, between 7AM-9AM local time when IT will be unveiled. Then, come back to ABCNEWS.com to read more about this invention and its uses.


Source: Chasing IT

[djb]

This is "IT" - I shit you not!

[djb]

Ripped from the Drudge Report:

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN DEC 02 2001 20:18:09 ET XXXXX

IT' REVEALED; 'SEGWAY' SELF-BALANCING PEOPLE MOVER, BILLED AS ALTERNATIVE TO CARS

After months of hype, an inventor is set to unveil an electric scooter being billed as an environmentally friendly alternative to cars.

Dean Kamen's long-awaited, secret invention, the Segway "will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy," he tells TIME on the eve of his product's unveiling.

Kamen imagines them everywhere: in parks and at Disneyland, on battlefields and factory floors, but especially on downtown sidewalks from Seattle to Shanghai. "Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb asses around town."

In the future he envisions, cars will be banished from urban centers to make room for millions of "empowered pedestrians" - empowered, naturally, by Kamen's brainchild, reports John Heilemann in next week's issue.

The invention is set to be unveiled Monday morning during ABC's GOOD MORNING AMERICA.

MORE

The Segway is a self-balancing people mover - powered by batteries and controlled by tilt-sensors and five solid state gyroscopes - that looks like a rotary lawnmower. The magic is in the balancing act ð no matter how hard you try, it won't let you fall.

For the past three months, Kamen allowed TIME behind the veil of secrecy as he and his team grappled with the questions that they will confront - about everything from safety and pricing to the challenges of launching a product with the country at war and the economy in recession.

There is no denying that the Segway, previously code-named "IT" and "Ginger," is an engineering marvel, reports Heilemann, who rode on the machine many times. Developed at a cost of more than $100 million, Kamenis vehicle is a complex bundle of hardware and software that mimics the human bodyis ability to maintain its balance. Not only does it have no brakes, but also no engine, no throttle, no gearshift, and no steering wheel. And it can carry the average rider for a full day, nonstop, on only five cents' worth of electricity.

Kamen explains how the Segway works: "When you walk, youire really in whatis called a controlled fall. You off-balance yourself, putting one foot in front of the other and falling onto them over and over again. In the same way, when you use a Segway, thereis a gyroscope that acts like your inner ear, a computer that acts like your brain, motors that act like your muscles, wheels that act like your feet. Suddenly, you feel like you have on a pair of magic sneakers, and instead of falling forward, you go sailing across the room."

As Kamen and his team were working on the IBOT wheelchair ð a six-wheel machine that goes up and down curbs, cruises effortlessly through sand or gravel, and climbs stairs - it dawned on them that they were onto something bigger. "We realized we could build a device using very similar technology that could impact how everybody gets around," he says. The IBOT was also the source of Gingeris mysterious codename. "Watching the IBOT, we used to say, ÈLook at that light, graceful robot, dancing up the stairsiÐso we started referring to it as Fred Upstairs, after Fred Astaire," Kamen recalls. "After we built Fred, it was only natural to name its smaller partner Ginger." With Ginger, as with the IBOT, Kamen explains, "the big idea is to put a human being into a system where the machine acts an extension of your body."

With the Segway, Kamen plans to change the world by changing how cities are organized. To Kamenis way of thinking, the problem is the automobile. "Cities need cars like fish need bicycles," he says. Segways, he believes, are ideal for downtown transportation. Unlike cars, they are cheap, clean, efficient, maneuverable. Unlike bicycles, they are designed specifically to be pedestrian friendly. "A bike is too slow and light to mix with trucks in the street but too large and fast to mix with pedestrians on the sidewalk," he argues. "Our machine is compatible with the sidewalk. If a Segway hits you, itis like being hit by another pedestrian."

Ordinary consumers wonit be able to buy Segways for at least a year, a consumer model is expected to go on sale for about $3,000, Heilemann reports. For now, the first customers will be deep-pocketed institutions such as the U.S. Postal Service and General Electric, the National Parks Service and Amazon.comÐ institutions capable of shelling out $8,000 apiece for industrial-strength models.

TIME also takes a hard look at the question of whether this product will really make it in the consumer market. "The consumer market is always harder," Intel chairman Andy Grove, who also rode the Segway, told Heilemann. "But when you think about it, the corporate market is almost unlimited. If the Postal Service and FedEx deploy this for all their carriers, the company will be busy for the next five years just keeping up with that demand."

-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2001
Not for reproduction without permission of the author

[LonestarROB]

Ah man, I saw that somewhere a few weeks ago. Don't remember where it was though [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img] .

[MFFL]

I saw it too. Looks cool! But I ain't gonna spend 3K for a glorified scooter [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[LonestarROB]

People are already lazy enough as it is, and now this? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

[Big Boy Laroux]

did anyone see the south park where mr. garrison invented the IT? it was funny, but i won't describe it unless someone else saw it.

[LonestarROB]

hehehe [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

[djb]

Only a matter of time before the ricers get to it..