Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology. What's tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com. He there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren foc Obama. Hey, Lauren,
Speaker 1: what are we doing today? Okay, it's kind of it's
Speaker 1: kind of a long story, all right, so let's let's
Speaker 1: let's gather around the camp fire children. We're gonna hear
Speaker 1: the story right now the Internet campfire. Yes. So, back
Speaker 1: on March, we published an episode called How Segways Work,
Speaker 1: which turned out to be about a lot more than
Speaker 1: just segways. We told the story in this episode of
Speaker 1: Dean Cayman and eccentric millionaire inventor. Not unlike Tony's Stark,
Speaker 1: he bought his own island. This one time, his own
Speaker 1: hype worked against him. When the very brilliant but very
Speaker 1: simple People Mover the Segway premiered, yep, and if you
Speaker 1: wanted to go way way back. Yeah, that wasn't the
Speaker 1: first time we ever talked about Dean came to the
Speaker 1: A eight. Chris and I did a fifteen minute long
Speaker 1: episode that's how far back we're talking when when I
Speaker 1: was able to only say things in fifteen minutes called
Speaker 1: how Dean came in works. I don't recommend that episode necessarily, uh,
Speaker 1: because it was before Chris and I really knew how
Speaker 1: podcasting worked. But we we've talked about him a couple
Speaker 1: of times anyway. Uh. Yeah. In that two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight episode, you guys covered the Luke Arm a little bit,
Speaker 1: technically the Decca Arm after Dean came in's medical technology company,
Speaker 1: Decca UM. But two thousand eight was the year that
Speaker 1: the Luke Arm came out of its funding period and
Speaker 1: went on to clinical trials. And if you guys haven't
Speaker 1: heard about this thing, it's a robotic Pross thesis and
Speaker 1: it was designed with funding from DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program.
Speaker 1: The the idea behind it sounds like science fiction, Okay.
Speaker 1: It's a prosthetic arm that works basically like a biological arm,
Speaker 1: translating signals from the person's muscles along with some some
Speaker 1: foot button input to perform complex tasks. It's powered at
Speaker 1: multiple joints. It has eighteen degrees of freedom, which is
Speaker 1: not bad compared to a meat arms twenty two degrees
Speaker 1: of freedom, and it weighs a little bit less actually
Speaker 1: than the average biological arm. Yeah, and In fact, when
Speaker 1: you say it sounds like it's science fiction, the reason
Speaker 1: why it's called the Luke Arm is that it is
Speaker 1: really anyway, Yeah, it is. It is so nicknamed after
Speaker 1: the character from Star Wars Luke Skywalker, who spoiler alert
Speaker 1: loses a hand um and yes, gains a father and
Speaker 1: also an incredible robotic hand that works magically, uh, exactly
Speaker 1: like his real hand, almost as the actor did not
Speaker 1: have his hand cut off but merely put on a glove. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the Luke Arm that we're talking
Speaker 1: about here. Not quite as spectacular as that, but still amazing. Oh. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And it's definitely enough to do an entire episode on uh,
Speaker 1: and we want to do that episode in the future.
Speaker 1: But okay, So news just dropped on that this arm
Speaker 1: has been approved for commercial manufacture and sale by the
Speaker 1: f d A, the Food and Drug Administration, which is
Speaker 1: the governing body in the United States. It has say
Speaker 1: over this kind of thing. So we wanted to share
Speaker 1: the story of who this Cayman person is and how
Speaker 1: he got into the medical tech business. So we are
Speaker 1: going to do a dreaded and or savored update episode. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're going to replay for you how segways work. Um,
Speaker 1: I I hope I didn't really listen to it, and
Speaker 1: this was from relatively early in my text up days,
Speaker 1: so so I really hope it doesn't suck, you know. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm I am confident that it is a strong episode.
Speaker 1: So let us not worry about such things, Lauren. Let
Speaker 1: us let us listen back on how segways work, and
Speaker 1: when it's over, we'll come back and we'll wrap up
Speaker 1: a little bit. We've got some more information for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the segue, I think is where a lot of people,
Speaker 1: no Dean Cayman like they they heard about it that
Speaker 1: because of the segue, well it got it got a
Speaker 1: great deal of publicity, which we will talk about later
Speaker 1: in the episode. Because it was the hype for it
Speaker 1: is can really only be called hype. It was very intent.
Speaker 1: It was it was like it was like if you
Speaker 1: had heard that this rock and roll band that had
Speaker 1: not released an album in like ten years was getting
Speaker 1: back together to do their first studio album, uh, and
Speaker 1: that you know, in a decade, and that would that
Speaker 1: would be kind of similar to the hype build up.
Speaker 1: But not only were they going to do an album,
Speaker 1: but they were going to revolutionize the entire music industry
Speaker 1: with this album. That's the level. Yeah, that's fair. So
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that in a bit, but first we
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of talk about actually what it was
Speaker 1: and how it worked. So if you were to look
Speaker 1: at one of these things, in case you have not
Speaker 1: seen it, it looks like a little two wheeled scooter,
Speaker 1: but the wheels are are side by side. They're not
Speaker 1: in line with one another. Their side by side. And
Speaker 1: when you would stand on a platform with the left
Speaker 1: wheel to your left, in the right wheel to your right,
Speaker 1: there's a bar that comes straight up vertically from the platform.
Speaker 1: Their handlebars handle bars that you hold onto, and then
Speaker 1: when you when you lean, it moves. When you lean forward,
Speaker 1: it starts to move forward. When you lean backward, it stops.
Speaker 1: If you lean back enough, it'll go backward a little bit.
Speaker 1: But it's um and uh and and the new models
Speaker 1: these days, when you tilt the handlebars, that is how
Speaker 1: you steer. Yeah, and the original one, you would twist
Speaker 1: one of the handlebars, the right handlebars, rapping a motorcycle
Speaker 1: style exactly, and if you if you twisted, if you
Speaker 1: twisted one way, it would turn left and you twist
Speaker 1: the other way. It turns right, and the way it
Speaker 1: turns is kind of cool. Uh. When you lean forward,
Speaker 1: both wheels engage and start moving forward simultaneously. Correct. When
Speaker 1: you turn, only one wheel starts to move in one
Speaker 1: direction and the other wheel allows you to pivot on
Speaker 1: on a dine right right. Yeah, it's a turning radius
Speaker 1: of zero zero turning radius, which is pretty amazing. And uh,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about what he intended this device to do
Speaker 1: in the second half, I think, but first we wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of talk about the actual technology that makes
Speaker 1: this possible. And Uh, Dean came in. Before he had
Speaker 1: gone into developing the Segway, had already started to work
Speaker 1: on some pretty cool systems. He did some work on
Speaker 1: on motorized wheelchairs that were capable of doing things like
Speaker 1: climbing up staircases, and that work kind of led him
Speaker 1: to the idea of what if I created a device
Speaker 1: that could transport people at a good clip, uh, and
Speaker 1: make it so that it it works on the same
Speaker 1: principle as what it's like when you're walking. So when
Speaker 1: you're walking, Yeah, exactly, it works in a way that
Speaker 1: feels natural to us. Although I will tell you the
Speaker 1: first time you get on a segway, nothing feels natural
Speaker 1: about it. I haven't actually been on one. You have,
Speaker 1: I have, I've done, I've I've been on a segway.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it. I had a great time. But
Speaker 1: have you ever engaged in an activity where the first
Speaker 1: up requires you to do something that feels totally unnatural
Speaker 1: to you? So there's like your body is actually resisting
Speaker 1: what you have to do. But basically that's me walking
Speaker 1: every day. But I mean, but but for for example,
Speaker 1: when I switched from a W A S D keyboard
Speaker 1: uh First Person Shooters to Xbox controller, I was like,
Speaker 1: what is this? See? For me, what I think of
Speaker 1: is like the first time when I was a little
Speaker 1: kid that I ever tried snorkeling, because I put my
Speaker 1: face in the water and my body is telling me,
Speaker 1: for goodness sakes, man, whatever you do, don't breathe. Then
Speaker 1: you're underwater, and you know, my my reast of my
Speaker 1: brain is saying, foolish, scary, reptile brain. That's not anything
Speaker 1: to worry about. You have a tube to the air
Speaker 1: which is unobstructed. You can breathe all you like. And
Speaker 1: it took that leaped, not literally didn't literally leap, but no, yeah,
Speaker 1: I couldn't get enough traction, but it took that mental
Speaker 1: leap to get to a point where I felt comfortable.
Speaker 1: Same sort of thing on a segue, because the way
Speaker 1: it works is that you start to lean forward as
Speaker 1: if you're going to take a step, because basically what
Speaker 1: walking is is controlled falling. Right, Yeah, You're you're you're
Speaker 1: throwing the upper part of your body forward. You're you're
Speaker 1: essentially unbalancing yourself and then counting on one leg or
Speaker 1: the other hypothetically to catch right. Yeah, you just you're
Speaker 1: constantly catching yourself with your legs. You're you know, especially
Speaker 1: if you're if you're walking at a good pace, you know,
Speaker 1: you'll see people they're leaning into it and uh, and
Speaker 1: that weight is what's helping them propel forward. And then
Speaker 1: they swing a leg out, which catches them, stops them
Speaker 1: from falling, and they use that leg to push them forward,
Speaker 1: and then the other leg and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: And it's something that we once we start to learn
Speaker 1: how to walk, it just becomes natural to us. We
Speaker 1: don't even think about it, right, right, Well, we've got
Speaker 1: all kinds of a really really intricate inner ear sensory
Speaker 1: mechanisms to tell us when we're balanced and when we're
Speaker 1: off balanced, and how everything is going. It's a really
Speaker 1: it's such an automatic process that when you're not too
Speaker 1: you're not thinking about it. Yeah. And what's also funny
Speaker 1: is that that that same system of sensors that we
Speaker 1: have in our brain. Well, two things are funny. One
Speaker 1: thing is that a lot of that informed Dean Cayman
Speaker 1: when he was designing the segue. He wanted to have
Speaker 1: a mechanical means to sort of recreate that. And the
Speaker 1: other thing is that these sensors are not fails. There's
Speaker 1: they're they're not foolproof. We we can fool ourselves. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is partially what leads us to things like motion sickness,
Speaker 1: where we get one set of input from a set
Speaker 1: of senses telling us one thing, and a different set
Speaker 1: of input from other senses telling us another thing, and
Speaker 1: that that conflict makes our brains say, Okay, if that's
Speaker 1: how you're gonna play it, we're losing lunch. That's it. Uh.
Speaker 1: Someone who has suffered from from car sickness motion sickness
Speaker 1: that way, strangely enough, never got s sick but I've
Speaker 1: been motion sick from a car before. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: the the they are foul, both these systems in our
Speaker 1: our brains and in the segway. As it turns out.
Speaker 1: So Dean came and wanted to create the segue in
Speaker 1: such a way that it would require you to lean
Speaker 1: forward as if you were going to take a step,
Speaker 1: and that would be the indicator to move right and
Speaker 1: then and then sort of trust the machine. I imagine
Speaker 1: that that's where you have your initial problem because you're
Speaker 1: you're you're leaning forward and you're not catching yourself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know you've already been told, You've already been told,
Speaker 1: do not take your foot off the platform to step
Speaker 1: and catch yourself, because then you run yourself over. So
Speaker 1: not only do you not wear a helmet at the
Speaker 1: time hypothetically, yes, I was wearing a helmet at the time.
Speaker 1: That was that was, that was a requirement. I want
Speaker 1: to say that I was at Disney when I did this.
Speaker 1: It was at some park and I think it was Disney,
Speaker 1: and it was it was not the full Epp Cut tour,
Speaker 1: which we can talk about. I've got a little factoid
Speaker 1: on that. Uh, there is a tour that very popular
Speaker 1: tour at Epcot that uses segways. It was that it
Speaker 1: was just a little like familiarize yourself with this technology thing,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I've always wanted to do this,
Speaker 1: and that's when I tried it. So I've only done
Speaker 1: at the one time, and I really would love to
Speaker 1: have more time with it because it was an interesting experience.
Speaker 1: But yes, it requires you to move forward as if
Speaker 1: you were going to take a step, but not take
Speaker 1: your weight completely off your foot, just lean forward as
Speaker 1: if you were about to start walking, and that makes
Speaker 1: the segway go, which is kind of cool. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: the way it does that is it has a complex
Speaker 1: system of gyroscopes inside to kind of let it know
Speaker 1: what orientation the segue is in relative to the ground. Right.
Speaker 1: It has five gyroscopes. In fact, technically it's really only
Speaker 1: using three of them. Two of them are fail safes.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, three of them are meant to detect things
Speaker 1: like forward, leaning forward, leaning backward, and tilt to the
Speaker 1: left or right. Right. Okay, but so so a gyroscope,
Speaker 1: let's talk about what a gyroscope is because a little
Speaker 1: bit integral. Yeah. Um, so it's basically just a spinning
Speaker 1: wheel inside of aim. Yeah, the frame itself is stable
Speaker 1: and free. The spinning wheel as um. Well, it's rotating
Speaker 1: around an axis, right, so you've got the access at
Speaker 1: the center of the wheel. The wheel rotates and then
Speaker 1: it was it resists changes forces that would change the
Speaker 1: alignment of that gyroscope so well, because if you push
Speaker 1: on the on the spinning wheel, it's just going to
Speaker 1: transfer into it's it's called precessing. This is a really
Speaker 1: this is an interesting thing. It's actually it's one of
Speaker 1: those things that's kind of difficult to explain in an
Speaker 1: audio podcast. First of all, let me tell you that
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com we have an article
Speaker 1: on how gyroscopes work, which includes video showing what I'm
Speaker 1: about to talk about. So if you have trouble visualizing
Speaker 1: what I'm about to explain, despite the fact that we're
Speaker 1: both gesticulating wildly, yeah, really, I mean, there's only so
Speaker 1: much I can get across in radio, right, but you
Speaker 1: can go there and look it up. But what the
Speaker 1: gyroscope does is this whole thing of recessing is imagine
Speaker 1: that you have a bicycle wheel suspended from a string,
Speaker 1: some strings tied to the ceiling somewhere the bicycle wheels
Speaker 1: hanging down the the string is tied to the axis
Speaker 1: of the wheel, so it could still spin freely. Okay,
Speaker 1: got it. Now, if you were to align that wheel
Speaker 1: so it's vertical relative to the ground, so the wheel
Speaker 1: is as if it was on a bicycle that you
Speaker 1: were riding down the streets. Okay. The string is tied
Speaker 1: to one side of that axis, so there's a string
Speaker 1: that's coming down on one side of the access. The
Speaker 1: other side of the access doesn't have a string tied
Speaker 1: to it, so there's nothing to keep it vertical. If
Speaker 1: you were to just let go, that wheel would flop
Speaker 1: down into the horizontal uh formation. It would just be
Speaker 1: parallel to the ground. Correct more or less. If you
Speaker 1: were to turn it vertical and then start spinning the wheel,
Speaker 1: it would remain vertical, really, and it would slowly begin
Speaker 1: to rotate around the string. So that's the precession, is
Speaker 1: that it's rotating around a different access perpendicular to the
Speaker 1: one of its main motion. Now is it staying vertical
Speaker 1: as opposed to flopping over? The reason for that is
Speaker 1: that if you were to uh apply a force to say,
Speaker 1: let's say you've got the bicycle wheel spinning in your arms. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're you're holding me, You're holding the axis in front
Speaker 1: of you, and the wheel is vertical, and you've got spinning.
Speaker 1: You can do this. I've seen science museums that have
Speaker 1: had this where you sit in a swivel chair and
Speaker 1: you hold the bicycle wheel in front of you, like
Speaker 1: you extend your arms out so that the wheel can
Speaker 1: spin freely in front of you. If you try and
Speaker 1: tilt that wheel, you'll feel resistance. And the reason for
Speaker 1: that is that imagine that, uh, you know, take a
Speaker 1: still image, like you're able to freeze time. Okay, I can, so,
Speaker 1: all right, well that's good, And you're going to tilt
Speaker 1: the wheel so that the top of the wheel from
Speaker 1: your perspective, would be moving to the left and the
Speaker 1: bottom of the wheel would be moving to the right.
Speaker 1: You're tilting it on a diagonal. Okay. Now, as that
Speaker 1: wheel is spinning the point where you would be turning
Speaker 1: it to the left, that that's you're replying a force
Speaker 1: to that section. So imagine imagine a spot at the
Speaker 1: very top of the wheel, at the vertical apex of
Speaker 1: that wheel. Okay, that's where you're applying the force to
Speaker 1: move to the left. Now the wheel is actually spinning.
Speaker 1: So if we were to jump ahead twenty frames, now
Speaker 1: the point is directly in front of the wheel. It's
Speaker 1: no longer at the top. It is rotated around to
Speaker 1: be in the front, and uh, it still wants to
Speaker 1: go toward the left. Go ahead another twenty frames. Now
Speaker 1: the point is at the bottom of the wheel. It
Speaker 1: still wants to go to the left. But the force
Speaker 1: you're applying is trying to make the bottom of the
Speaker 1: wheel go to the right. So the force you're applying
Speaker 1: is trying to push the wheels direction in one way.
Speaker 1: But because that reference point was at the top at
Speaker 1: the beginning and it's still trying to go to the
Speaker 1: left from when you were applying the force at the
Speaker 1: very beginning, those two forces cancel each other out. It
Speaker 1: resists the force to make it move in a different direction.
Speaker 1: And uh, then you also have the precession. So if
Speaker 1: you're singing a swivel chair, you start to spin around.
Speaker 1: It's kind of fun. Uh, this is a great cheap
Speaker 1: way to entertain small children. Um. Anyway, it's an interesting
Speaker 1: just an interesting fact of physics is that the gyroscope
Speaker 1: in this this stable frame will react in this way.
Speaker 1: But so okay, So, so the point of gyroscopes being
Speaker 1: in devices like this is that if you measure the
Speaker 1: position of the spinning wheel inside of its frame, you
Speaker 1: can determine the the pitch and the pitch rate. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: You're you're looking at like the the frame itself can
Speaker 1: move freely within the confines of whatever it is you're
Speaker 1: talking talking, right, whether it's it could be a segue,
Speaker 1: it could be an airplane, it could be a phone
Speaker 1: um and so it can move freely within that context.
Speaker 1: And it maybe a solid state drive, as is the
Speaker 1: case with the segue, may not be an actual physical gyroscope.
Speaker 1: And we'll we'll get into that in just a second, right,
Speaker 1: And uh, but if you're able to do that in
Speaker 1: such a way, then the gyroscope and the pitch detection
Speaker 1: will allow the will give enough information so that some
Speaker 1: sort of processor can take that information in and know
Speaker 1: what orientation the segue is in relative to the ground.
Speaker 1: So by detecting these changes and by detecting the forces
Speaker 1: that are enacting upon these different gyroscopes, the segue can
Speaker 1: interpret that and say, oh, I should engage the motor
Speaker 1: to drive forward, or I should stop, or I should
Speaker 1: move back move backward exactly, or I should I should
Speaker 1: probably put up at a warning because this guy is
Speaker 1: really leaning over a bit too far right right, Um,
Speaker 1: but so so yeah, So the kind of gyroscopes that
Speaker 1: are that are in a segue. Are these solid state
Speaker 1: angular rate sensors? Yes, that that are basically the way
Speaker 1: that I understand. It's a little silicon plate. Yes, and
Speaker 1: I think I actually said that the correct way the
Speaker 1: first time. Yes, you did silicon not silicone. You're exactly right,
Speaker 1: two separate issues. Um. And so it's a it's a
Speaker 1: silicon silicon plate mounted on a support frame. And uh,
Speaker 1: you run. You run an electrostatic current across the plate
Speaker 1: and wiggles the silicon particles around and makes the plate
Speaker 1: as a whole vibrate in a very predictable way. Um.
Speaker 1: And when there's a physical change in the forces, meaning
Speaker 1: when you've tilted in some way. Yeah, yeah, when when
Speaker 1: you physically move the plate on its access axis. Yes,
Speaker 1: talking is great. The particles suddenly shift and the vibration changes, right,
Speaker 1: And by changing of vibration, you know that there's a
Speaker 1: change in the state that you are in, whether that's
Speaker 1: a tilt or you know, whatever other thing you might
Speaker 1: have this gyroscope, and but in the case of the segue,
Speaker 1: we're talking about specifically the tilt of the segue itself. Right,
Speaker 1: So if you hook a computer up to this, that
Speaker 1: can measure the precise change, right and interpret it exactly.
Speaker 1: So if it says like, oh, it's changed a little bit,
Speaker 1: like the vibration has changed a little bit, indicating that
Speaker 1: the person is starting to lean forward time to engage
Speaker 1: the motors. If it's changed a lot, it might mean
Speaker 1: that the person has leaned forward pretty hard, which indicates
Speaker 1: that you should move at a faster pace. Uh. So
Speaker 1: you've got these motors that will engage in order to
Speaker 1: activate the wheels, and the wheels begin to turn and
Speaker 1: that's where you get the motion. So the thing that's
Speaker 1: keeping this all going is um. You know, you've got
Speaker 1: the gyroscopic sensors that's giving the information. But then you
Speaker 1: have two circuit boards that have controllers on them as
Speaker 1: ten microprocessors total in the original segue, and those microprocessors
Speaker 1: are what's taking in all this information and uh and
Speaker 1: and translating it into action. Yeah. Yeah, that that first one. UM.
Speaker 1: The microprocessors would check the position sensors about a hundred
Speaker 1: times per second, that's right. Yeah, So that way it
Speaker 1: can make sure that it's giving the right information to
Speaker 1: the motors so that you're you're moving at the right
Speaker 1: speed compared to how you are how you're physically manipulating
Speaker 1: the segue right, right, it's it's also gotten there um
Speaker 1: a couple of tilt sensors filled with electrolyte fluid, electrolytes
Speaker 1: being of course what plants crave, thank you bondo, which
Speaker 1: which is again just like your inner ear. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's your inner ear has flu it in it, and
Speaker 1: that's what helps you determine what your orientation is relative
Speaker 1: to your environment. This is why one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why when people go up in the vomit commet, that's
Speaker 1: why it's called that, because when you're in the vomit commet,
Speaker 1: you're you're the sensory information you're getting from your eyes
Speaker 1: and from your your you know, what you're feeling is
Speaker 1: so different from what your inner ear is trying to
Speaker 1: make sense of when this fluid is something. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's basically you've just got this little sensor in your
Speaker 1: head where you've got a level of fluid, and that
Speaker 1: is how you calibrate yourself to the ground by based
Speaker 1: on on where the fluid is tilting right and in
Speaker 1: a freefall motion. That that information ends up being a
Speaker 1: little weird, and so a lot of people end up
Speaker 1: again losing their lunch, which is why they often refer
Speaker 1: to the planes that take these these flights as the
Speaker 1: vomit commet. Yeah, but it's interesting that the segue itself
Speaker 1: has this electoral life. Not great, you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about your segue losing its lunch. Don't worry about
Speaker 1: that part. That part similar he has now ended. But
Speaker 1: other than that, it is using a very similar approach
Speaker 1: to detect tilt as the way humans do which again
Speaker 1: kind of cool that Dean came and is taking taking
Speaker 1: direction from the way our bodies do stuff to help
Speaker 1: inform him on the way he makes technology. I blame
Speaker 1: it on his extensive medical background. Yeah, and again the
Speaker 1: Luke arm another example of that. Right, he's taking that
Speaker 1: that how do humans do things and how can we
Speaker 1: make technology that emulates this? He was also when he
Speaker 1: was in college, he was the first He invented the
Speaker 1: first drug injection pump and later the first portable insulin pump,
Speaker 1: which is part of how he made such huge amount
Speaker 1: of money. And the cool thing to me is that
Speaker 1: it's obvious that what drives him is a desire to
Speaker 1: innovate and to help people, and he talks very passionately.
Speaker 1: There's some really really good interviews with him will Lincome
Speaker 1: on social where he's talking about watching people use his
Speaker 1: inventions for the first time and and them kind of
Speaker 1: you know, people who haven't been able to move this
Speaker 1: way ever and in some cases and them and just
Speaker 1: the amount of pride and and just awesome that happens,
Speaker 1: and the fact that that that is what what really
Speaker 1: uh gives them an incentive to continue. It's pretty interesting stuff.
Speaker 1: It's it's a really cool story. And in fact, there's
Speaker 1: a whole section of the Segway story that we need
Speaker 1: to get into, which involves the whole hype issue and
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the the original Segue models
Speaker 1: that came out and and some controversy that Segue has
Speaker 1: had over the years. We'll talk about that in just
Speaker 1: a minute, but first, before we do that, let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsored Let's segue back
Speaker 1: into our episode. I couldn't resist and so just a
Speaker 1: few more facts about the original segue. Keep in mind
Speaker 1: that they've made several different models over the course of
Speaker 1: the segway's life, but the earlier ones they had a
Speaker 1: top speed of about twelve and a half miles per hour,
Speaker 1: which is around twenty kilometers per hour, right, I think,
Speaker 1: and I think in some other countries it was maybe
Speaker 1: thirteen and a half. But but yes, yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: all depended on well, I also depend on what which
Speaker 1: model you had, because they did they did do a
Speaker 1: range of them. We have an article on our site
Speaker 1: how the segway works, and that one we specifically looked
Speaker 1: at the segue HT, which was one of the earlier models. Um.
Speaker 1: It required about six hours of charging, It had a
Speaker 1: range of around seventeen miles, which was about twenty eight
Speaker 1: kilometers and um. The current segways are called PT, which
Speaker 1: stands for Personal Transporter, and they have a whole line
Speaker 1: of them that do different things for for for like
Speaker 1: city travel versus off roads, versus security purposes. They've got
Speaker 1: one specifically for golf courses. Yep. They've got somewhere they
Speaker 1: have like all these containers on them so that you
Speaker 1: can carry stuff, so if you have to transport things. Granted,
Speaker 1: none of them are going to replace the minivan, so
Speaker 1: soccer moms are not going to be able to I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess you can maybe tie a couple of of
Speaker 1: uh red wagons behind and just like like a mama duck.
Speaker 1: I was really waiting for you to say, like small
Speaker 1: children to the handlebars, and I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: think I wouldn't. I wouldn't advocate that. I wouldn't advocate that.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't advocate the wagons actually either that would be
Speaker 1: a disaster. But anyway, Um, the the motors of those
Speaker 1: early segues had about two horsepower worth of power and
Speaker 1: had a two stage transmission with a twenty four to
Speaker 1: one gear ratio with a helical gear assembly and it
Speaker 1: was actually a harmonic assembly. Yeah. They they engineered it
Speaker 1: so that the sounds that the two meshes in the
Speaker 1: gearbox would were exactly two octaves apart, so they would harmonize. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting, some might say crazy. Um it
Speaker 1: weighed the original the HT the one that we talked
Speaker 1: about in our article, weighed about eighty three pounds, which
Speaker 1: is about thirty eight kilograms, and it could carry a
Speaker 1: person of up to two hundred sixty pounds, which is
Speaker 1: about hundred eighteen kilograms or for my friends in England
Speaker 1: eighteen and a half stone. Uh. It had two lithium
Speaker 1: ion batteries to supply power rechargeable obviously you wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to have to PLoP out a different battery every fifteen
Speaker 1: to seventeen miles or so um. And it used an
Speaker 1: electronic key system with a bit encrypted digital code, so
Speaker 1: you had this key that would plug into It's sort
Speaker 1: of like a little like like flash drive, except you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have called it that then, because right you would
Speaker 1: have called it, well, you could have called it that
Speaker 1: then they'd had to flash at that point, but it
Speaker 1: really wasn't. But it was a digital key that has
Speaker 1: a hundred eight bit encrypted code on it, so that
Speaker 1: the segway will only work with that code and you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about someone not necessarily not have
Speaker 1: to worry about it. But if someone did run off
Speaker 1: with your segue, they couldn't use it. They would have
Speaker 1: to literally lift it up and move it away, which
Speaker 1: kind of defeats the point. Right. So that's that's the
Speaker 1: that's the basic model that we talked about in our
Speaker 1: in our not our podcasts our article. But there are
Speaker 1: quite a few other ones that are out now. Like
Speaker 1: I said, there's a the I two, which is your
Speaker 1: basic normal terrain segue, and then there's the X two,
Speaker 1: which the the off road the next to adventure X
Speaker 1: to adventure off road travel. Yeah, and they've even got
Speaker 1: some that were you know, they worked with DARPA to
Speaker 1: to design a kind of segue that was used as
Speaker 1: a platform for robotics. UM. They've worked they've created different
Speaker 1: models like three wheeled and four wheeled vehicles based on
Speaker 1: the segway technology UM for various things. Here in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: we have Atlanta Ambassadors. These are people who are in
Speaker 1: downtown Atlanta who often help out during big events, like
Speaker 1: when when something's going on downtown and uh, you know
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of people there. Uh. These
Speaker 1: folks are there to kind of help give directions and
Speaker 1: and you know someone's like, hey, I'm looking for the
Speaker 1: Georgia Aquarium. Where do I go from here? I was, Oh,
Speaker 1: you need to walk down this two blocks and take
Speaker 1: a left, that kind of thing. A lot of them
Speaker 1: have segways, so I see them whenever I'm downtown for
Speaker 1: you know, Dragon con St. Patrick's Day Parade, which uh
Speaker 1: at the time of this recording, will be in just
Speaker 1: a couple of days. Um So, but they have them.
Speaker 1: I've seen them in airports, a lot of airports have
Speaker 1: seen especially airport security on the these. I've seen police
Speaker 1: on these. Yeah. They were big at the Beijing Olympics.
Speaker 1: In In fact, I want to say that, um that
Speaker 1: the most I well, I think the most I ever
Speaker 1: saw at one point was actually at Epcot because, like
Speaker 1: I said, Epcot Center, uh not Epcot Center, they used
Speaker 1: to be called Epcot Center. I was there when it opened,
Speaker 1: because as Lauren has pointed out numerous times, I'm old,
Speaker 1: but I remember going to Epcot and seeing people on
Speaker 1: these and that was probably the first time I set
Speaker 1: them in person. But go back to when it was unveiled,
Speaker 1: or even before it was unveiled. Came in actually came
Speaker 1: up with the idea in the late nineties, like and
Speaker 1: he had this idea of creating devices that could operate
Speaker 1: on pedestrian sidewalks and paths. And in two thousand one,
Speaker 1: the company that would become Segue broke ground on its
Speaker 1: manufacturing plant in New Hampshire, which is where Dean Cayman's from. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they they broke around in February, and I think completed
Speaker 1: it in November. Yep, yep, right in November December, and
Speaker 1: they adopted the name Segue in December two thousand one.
Speaker 1: And that's actually when they unveiled the Segue, the first
Speaker 1: models of it on Good Morning America, a television program
Speaker 1: that's kind of a news oriented television program here in
Speaker 1: the United States. And I actually saw this. I saw
Speaker 1: the unveiling episode. You stayed home, stayed home from work.
Speaker 1: You I didn't stay home from work. I delayed leaving.
Speaker 1: Uh Am I going to get in trouble. I mean,
Speaker 1: I haven't worked for this company in years. Two thousand one,
Speaker 1: I was not working for How Stuff Works, I was.
Speaker 1: I was not here. I was working for a totally
Speaker 1: different company. I did drag my feet leaving the house
Speaker 1: that morning, because I knew that this was happening everywhere
Speaker 1: in the news. It had been that there was going
Speaker 1: to be this incredible, incredible device. And it had two
Speaker 1: code names that I recall off top of my head.
Speaker 1: One was it right all caps, it like like a
Speaker 1: very clown, and then the other one was Nice Pennywise.
Speaker 1: The other one was Tim Curry, was the television ad
Speaker 1: uptation um, Stephen King. The second one was Ginger Ginger, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was it was. It had been code named
Speaker 1: Ginger based on the fact that the wheelchair that Decca
Speaker 1: had designed earlier was called Fred upstairs within the lab,
Speaker 1: based on Fred a stair because they were they were
Speaker 1: saying that it just dances right up the stairs and
Speaker 1: there was a wheelchair that could climb stairs. Fred and
Speaker 1: then Ginger and so and so Ginger. Of course Ginger
Speaker 1: could do everything Fred could do backwards in heels. So
Speaker 1: not that the segue necessarily did. But I it's just
Speaker 1: one of my favorite little quotes, um um. But but so,
Speaker 1: a journalist had started writing this book called Code Named Ginger,
Speaker 1: and it was leaked at the beginning of two thousand one,
Speaker 1: I think by Inside dot com. And this is I
Speaker 1: think what really created all of this insane hype, because
Speaker 1: it was the book took such pains to not talk
Speaker 1: specifically about what this machine did, but it was going
Speaker 1: to change the world. And you get these quotes from
Speaker 1: people like like Steve Jobs that were like, this is
Speaker 1: this is going to be bigger than the PC, again
Speaker 1: without it actually revealing what it was. Was that the
Speaker 1: people who had found out about it said it was
Speaker 1: going to be this phenomenal technology that was going to
Speaker 1: fundamentally change the way we live, and and it was
Speaker 1: built up so much. I mean, hype is seems like
Speaker 1: a like a good thing hypothetically. Well, I was going
Speaker 1: to say that hype is probably not even strong enough
Speaker 1: in a word, considering that, you know, the deliverables that
Speaker 1: were being promised on based on this technology that no
Speaker 1: one outside of a very small group of people had
Speaker 1: any knowledge about. People were saying that that cities were
Speaker 1: going to be redesigned around this thing, and and that
Speaker 1: it was going to be bigger than the Internet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then Good Morning America had its unveiling, and before
Speaker 1: the show, I remember, like days before the show aired, Uh,
Speaker 1: there were already rumors that it was going to be
Speaker 1: some sort of motorized scooter device. And this was based
Speaker 1: off patents that had been filed as well as Dean
Speaker 1: Cayman's previous work with the wheelchairs and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: And so when it actually happened, like I was hoping
Speaker 1: at the time that it wasn't going to end up
Speaker 1: being a scooter because I was thinking, like, if it's
Speaker 1: something totally different, that's gonna be awesome. If it's a scooter,
Speaker 1: it's still could be awesome, but it's gonna be it's
Speaker 1: not gonna be as cool as if it were something
Speaker 1: totally out of left field. And then I saw it
Speaker 1: and I thought, well, it's interesting, but is it really
Speaker 1: going to change the world? And I understood what what
Speaker 1: what they were going for. They were saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: especially in cities, particularly in cities, which is where the
Speaker 1: majority of people tend to live. Not that not that
Speaker 1: there aren't plenty of people on rural area population density. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got very dense populations in cities that traffic is
Speaker 1: a real problem. You've got people who are getting in
Speaker 1: their car to go relatively short distances to do uh
Speaker 1: basic stuff like here in Atlanta. Uh, there's thin We
Speaker 1: mentioned the traffic on the show about once every other episode,
Speaker 1: and not just traffic though I was going to say
Speaker 1: that we don't have like our our public transportation system
Speaker 1: is not doesn't measure up to public transportation systems, and
Speaker 1: some other cities like DC or New York or Chicago. Um, now,
Speaker 1: we do have one and and you can use it,
Speaker 1: but it's just not ideal. It's not doesn't run as
Speaker 1: frequently as some other cities, and it doesn't paces exactly.
Speaker 1: So that means that if you want to get around
Speaker 1: Atlanta and you want to do it effectively, you pretty
Speaker 1: much have to have a car. And the idea was
Speaker 1: that for cities like Atlanta and other cities that have
Speaker 1: similar issues, the segue could end up allowing you to
Speaker 1: go further than you would if you were on foot, uh,
Speaker 1: and not clog up all the streets. So it would
Speaker 1: alleviate traffic problems. It would start because as an electric vehicle,
Speaker 1: it does not actually generate eate any any greenhouse gases
Speaker 1: or toxins. Although you could argue that depending on how
Speaker 1: the electricity was generated, that's still a problem. Is just
Speaker 1: not being created by the vehicle itself. It's not direct.
Speaker 1: It's a couple steps, yeah, exactly. Um, but that would
Speaker 1: also be a thing, and that it would uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it could it could really be a big benefit. But
Speaker 1: for that to work, you have to have an infrastructure
Speaker 1: that supports that kind of transportation, at the very least
Speaker 1: of bike lanes or or really wide sidewalks, really wide sidewalks.
Speaker 1: One of the big things that that Decca and we're
Speaker 1: trying to do was create legislature that would allow the
Speaker 1: segue to to go on sidewalks. They had huge pushback
Speaker 1: from a lot of communities. I think that it's that
Speaker 1: they're banned entirely on sidewalks in the UK. Maybe in
Speaker 1: some places they are, I know in some cities. They
Speaker 1: definitely are very state by state and municipality by municipality.
Speaker 1: It probably doesn't surprise you to know that the first
Speaker 1: state to legalize the segue on pedestrian sidewalks was in
Speaker 1: fact New Hampshire, where the segue was located. It was
Speaker 1: that that was passed into law on February two thousand two.
Speaker 1: Uh and uh. And it wasn't until November eighteenth, two
Speaker 1: thousand two that segways went on sale to the public
Speaker 1: for the first time on Amazon dot Com. Beyond that,
Speaker 1: you've got like two thousand five was when Disney World
Speaker 1: was introducing the Around the World at Epcot Segue Tour.
Speaker 1: So for those who have not been to Epcot, it's
Speaker 1: divided into two big sections. You have the Future World section,
Speaker 1: where it's all about energy, and transportation and the things
Speaker 1: that are going to be important to us in the
Speaker 1: years to come, and kind of the innovations that we
Speaker 1: can expect, or maybe even stuff that you know is
Speaker 1: really far out there and maybe it will never happen.
Speaker 1: The other one is the World Showcase, which has it's
Speaker 1: almost like a permanent World's Fair. It has uh has
Speaker 1: different pavilions that represent various countries in the world, and
Speaker 1: they are the around the World Segue Tour was a
Speaker 1: Segue tour that would take you around the World Showcase.
Speaker 1: It was like a two hour long tour and it
Speaker 1: would allow you to start to explore the World Showcase
Speaker 1: a couple of hours before it was open to the
Speaker 1: general public. Because the way that Epcot works, or at
Speaker 1: least it used to I assume it still does, is
Speaker 1: when the doors would open, meaning that when they would
Speaker 1: let you into the park, you could only go into
Speaker 1: the Future World part For the first couple of hours,
Speaker 1: the World Showcase would be held off and like like
Speaker 1: if the park opens at eight am, then the World
Speaker 1: Showcase would open at ten. So this tour would allow
Speaker 1: you to go through the World Showcase at eight am,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to worry about running down Jimmy
Speaker 1: who isn't paying attention because he wants a Mickey Mouse doll.
Speaker 1: All right. Yeah, Disney has actually banned the use of
Speaker 1: segways other than in their tours. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the problems that it's had with all of
Speaker 1: this is that UM segways are not technically graded for
Speaker 1: medical use. UM they are, although they can help people
Speaker 1: with disabilities move from one place to another. Because because
Speaker 1: Decca worked with Johnson and Johnson on some of their
Speaker 1: UM some of the gyroscopic platform technology, Johnson and Johnson
Speaker 1: actually owns that copyright and for for medical use. And interesting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did not know that. That didn't come up in
Speaker 1: my research. I know that on September fourteenth, two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, they actually issued a recall for twenty three
Speaker 1: thousand segus and that was that was all of them
Speaker 1: at that at that time because there was a software glitch,
Speaker 1: and that software glitch would cause the wheels to occasionally
Speaker 1: and spontaneously reverse direction, which obviously that would be a
Speaker 1: bad thing. I mean, imagine if you're writing on it
Speaker 1: and you're not strapped into this thing, which you're not yeah, well,
Speaker 1: it's like the way I explained it to people, as
Speaker 1: I imagine you're walking down down the street and then
Speaker 1: suddenly the ground underneath you shifts direction to opposite the way.
Speaker 1: You know, you would end up on your back pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: And uh. In fact, there were people who fell off
Speaker 1: the seguae, which you know, when when I was first introduced,
Speaker 1: that was one of the big things that they were
Speaker 1: saying that, you know, because of all the gyroscopes would
Speaker 1: be really not that would be impossible, but it would
Speaker 1: be hard. But then with this software glitch you know,
Speaker 1: made it very easy to fall off a segue if
Speaker 1: it happened, and in fact, people ended up getting some injuries,
Speaker 1: like some broken wrists and things like that. There was
Speaker 1: a smaller recall back in A two thousand three because
Speaker 1: when the charge got too low, the segway would just
Speaker 1: stop very abruptly and they had to you start tumbling
Speaker 1: off the same sort of thing. Um, I know that
Speaker 1: in in two thousand nine, Dean came and ended up
Speaker 1: selling the company, and he sold it to Jim Hesselden.
Speaker 1: The last name I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing correctly.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he was known as Jimmy Jimmy in
Speaker 1: the UK, and who's a guy who's a businessman and
Speaker 1: a philanthropist and really really known for his philanthropic endeavors.
Speaker 1: And tragically in September he Hesselden died in an accident.
Speaker 1: He actually he was on a segue and he ended
Speaker 1: up falling off the edge of a cliff in a
Speaker 1: wooded day. He was in one of the off road
Speaker 1: segways and supposedly he encountered a walker on a path
Speaker 1: and uh and reversed to get out of the walkers
Speaker 1: way and templed over. Oh I did not, I didn't
Speaker 1: see that. That's that's that's kind of unconfirmed. I think
Speaker 1: that I read that on like on like daily mail
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah. So anyway, it was a tragic accident.
Speaker 1: It was a terrible thing, and uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: cannot say for certain, but I have a feeling that
Speaker 1: that was part of what prompted segue to uh insert.
Speaker 1: So if you go to visit the segway website, a
Speaker 1: little segway safety pop up will appear and tell you that,
Speaker 1: you know, you need to review the safety procedures of
Speaker 1: and know how to write a segue in order for
Speaker 1: you to operate one safely. And so there's a there's
Speaker 1: an actual pop up that will obscure your view of
Speaker 1: the Segue website until you, you know, dismiss it. And um,
Speaker 1: they even have a full video that explains, you know,
Speaker 1: how the segway works and the best way to operate
Speaker 1: it safely so that you don't end up injuring yourself. Um.
Speaker 1: And on February, Segue was acquired by Summit Strategic Investments
Speaker 1: ll C, which is the current company that owns the brand.
Speaker 1: And uh, yeah, that's that's kind of where we are
Speaker 1: right now. Just just a few Actually, on this March sixth,
Speaker 1: they announced the development of a three wheel security device
Speaker 1: from planned to be coming out in Q four, uh
Speaker 1: this this year. Um and yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: so it's a reading all about this kind of broke
Speaker 1: my heart because because Cayman was so passionate about how
Speaker 1: this this terrific device could really change the world and
Speaker 1: change people's lives and change our city scapes for the better.
Speaker 1: And it fizzled so much. You know, it's we we
Speaker 1: talked about how a company debuted in two thousand two,
Speaker 1: they started selling the things in two thousand six, they
Speaker 1: had only sold three thousand units. They were hoping to
Speaker 1: have been selling forty thousand per year UM and you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of things happened. It was it's been a
Speaker 1: tough time the past decade or so for consumer right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've had economic downturns, You've had resistance on the part
Speaker 1: of many municipalities to allow the segue to travel along
Speaker 1: things like sidewalks. There's also other just practical considerations. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously a segue is great if you happen to live
Speaker 1: in a place where the climate is nice and mild.
Speaker 1: But if you are in a place that gets a
Speaker 1: lot of rain, segways not you. You're not going to
Speaker 1: be covered in the rain. You're going to actually be
Speaker 1: out there, and depending upon the segways made, it may
Speaker 1: not operate so well right after a while, or you know,
Speaker 1: like I've flung out in New Hampshire. There are many
Speaker 1: months in New Hampshire that I would not want to
Speaker 1: be down sidewalk. Yeah. So there's there's lots of reasons
Speaker 1: why the segway adoption may have been slower, and I
Speaker 1: think the main one is just that, you know, we
Speaker 1: were so far along in the infrastructure that we rely
Speaker 1: on already, Like we're so dependent upon a certain way
Speaker 1: for our cities to to work for us to get
Speaker 1: around and comfortably, that to expected change in that is
Speaker 1: a little on the optimistic side. It would require a
Speaker 1: huge amount of effort, time and money, and and when
Speaker 1: I say a huge amount of time, I'm talking decades
Speaker 1: to really refit a city in such a way. So
Speaker 1: it would be ideal for using something like a segue,
Speaker 1: particularly if you're in a city that has a actually
Speaker 1: a fairly healthy pedestrian population, healthy and is in there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people out there walking right, not
Speaker 1: necessarily that they're all in great health. Atlanta not so
Speaker 1: great for pedestrians, tent I would say, I mean pedestrians,
Speaker 1: We have very few sidewalks outside of our main metropolitan areas.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's the other thing with these segways
Speaker 1: is that I think that the concept was always for
Speaker 1: them to be secondary to a car, to like, have
Speaker 1: a car and then have the segway in it, and
Speaker 1: you know, park the car somewhere and then take the
Speaker 1: segway out and go about your business, right, or if
Speaker 1: you happen to live, like, you know, two miles away
Speaker 1: from a market. Then you can just for that, sure,
Speaker 1: but you know, but when these units cost over five
Speaker 1: grand to pop, yeah, and they weigh almost a hundred pounds,
Speaker 1: then you know that's it's not easy to carry him around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's one of me. So that's you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. See, it wasn't that bad as if we
Speaker 1: just listened to it. Yeah that that was hypothetically terrific,
Speaker 1: So you know, it's it's interesting. The Segway story certainly
Speaker 1: had a tough road. Oh, you know, it was. It
Speaker 1: was one of those things. The Segway was one of
Speaker 1: those things that that would require a massive change in
Speaker 1: infrastructure here in the United States in order for it
Speaker 1: to be a viable solution for a large part of
Speaker 1: the population. Right, I certainly can't see me writing down
Speaker 1: one on the sidewalk because I'd be a hazard to
Speaker 1: pedestrians and there's not really a lot of room for
Speaker 1: me to ride on roads. So in order for it
Speaker 1: to be a really useful means of transportation, we'd have
Speaker 1: to make some pretty big changes. Yeah, the entire infrastructure
Speaker 1: of how we create sidewalks and roads would have to change.
Speaker 1: But the Luke arm has got a much more promising
Speaker 1: in my eyes prospect. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. As part of
Speaker 1: its trials, the FDA reviewed a study that was done
Speaker 1: by the Department of Veterans Affairs, in which they fitted
Speaker 1: thirty six participants with one of these prostheses and collected
Speaker 1: information about how it performed during common life tasks, you know,
Speaker 1: like household chores, self care stuff, and and etcetera. The
Speaker 1: study found that some of the participants found the arm
Speaker 1: at an improvement over their previous pros thesis, and were
Speaker 1: thereby able to do things like prepare food, or feed themselves,
Speaker 1: or use zippers, or brush their hair, or or use
Speaker 1: locks and keys. And those sound I mean, if those
Speaker 1: sound like really basic tasks for something to do, I
Speaker 1: mean a they're actually incredibly complicated. And the force feedback
Speaker 1: motor system that your hands use is is so complex
Speaker 1: and so difficult to replicate in robotics. But if you
Speaker 1: ever want to see me cry at my desk, um,
Speaker 1: send me a YouTube link to two an ampute who
Speaker 1: is using a Luke arm to do something like open
Speaker 1: an envelope, and I will absolutely break down. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you hear the story about how the
Speaker 1: government approached. Dean came in and said, here are the
Speaker 1: things we want you to be able to do with
Speaker 1: this arm. This is before they had designed anything. This
Speaker 1: was just the government coming up to Dean came in
Speaker 1: and saying, here, here's our list of things we want
Speaker 1: to be able to do. We want you to do them. Uh,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna give you eighteen million dollars to try
Speaker 1: and do it. And Dean came and said, you are crazy.
Speaker 1: The things included everything from having the arm b at
Speaker 1: least at most the same weight as a as a
Speaker 1: human arm would be to have as many degrees of
Speaker 1: freedom as possible, and to be able to do things
Speaker 1: like pick up a grape without crushing it, and even
Speaker 1: to be able to tell the difference by quote unquote
Speaker 1: feel between a grape and a raisin, so that you
Speaker 1: can only pick them up, but that you would have
Speaker 1: some force feedback that wouldn't let the wearer have a
Speaker 1: sensation that lets them know certain properties of whatever it
Speaker 1: is they are touching with a robotic arm. These are
Speaker 1: incredible requirements and so yeah, I agree that we're going
Speaker 1: to have to do a really a really deep look
Speaker 1: at the Luke arm in the future. Because it is
Speaker 1: a phenomenal piece of technology, oh absolutely, And and it
Speaker 1: is cleared by the FDA for for its electrical software
Speaker 1: and battery systems, and also it's safety and durability. So
Speaker 1: the challenge now is turning this this what turned into
Speaker 1: a hundred million dollar project into a commercially viable product
Speaker 1: that you know, can can also help common people live
Speaker 1: better lives. So Cayman and and the company Decca are
Speaker 1: now on a hunt for manufacturing and marketing partners who
Speaker 1: will be able to make the ARM both affordable and
Speaker 1: hopefully for them profitable. There's there's no word yet on
Speaker 1: a release date or price, but once we get that
Speaker 1: kind of information, maybe once it hits the early market,
Speaker 1: will do that full episode. Yeah, I would love to
Speaker 1: have a really good get at everything, from the actual
Speaker 1: history of the development to its final specs and how
Speaker 1: they managed to achieve this remarkable technological advance. I mean
Speaker 1: just being able to power all those joints that you
Speaker 1: have to have a power source, not just a motor,
Speaker 1: but a power source for all that and batteries are
Speaker 1: not light and it has not one, i think, but
Speaker 1: but two power sources at different segments of the arms.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, it's I mean, this is this is
Speaker 1: pretty amazing engineering and frankly one of the stories that
Speaker 1: makes me feel get all the warm fuzzies too, Like
Speaker 1: I love these stories about people who look on an
Speaker 1: engineering challenge that's not just difficult but has a measurable
Speaker 1: effect upon people who can then take advantage of it,
Speaker 1: especially people who have suffered a loss of some sort.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a really heartwarming kind of application
Speaker 1: of technology. So we will definitely do a full episode
Speaker 1: on that once we have, like Lauren said, more information. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you guys, have any uh any topics you want hear
Speaker 1: more about something that you you're just curious about, you
Speaker 1: maybe have always wondered and you thought, I want to
Speaker 1: get a real in depth look at this, or perhaps
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