EC Comics great Jack Kamen (probably best known today as the father of inventor Dean Kamen) has died at 88. [more inside]
posted by kittens for breakfast on Aug 7, 2008 - 11 comments

Not content to rest on his laurels after creations like the portable kidney dialysis machine, the IBOT robotic wheelchair, the Segway, and the innovative cyborg replacement limbs, DEKA Research President Dean Kamen demonstrates his new vapor compression distiller on The Colbert Report. [more inside]
posted by mullingitover on Mar 21, 2008 - 71 comments

Dean Kamen's Artificial "Luke" Arm - Segway inventor reinvents the prosthetic arm: "I've been able to do stuff with this that I haven't, seriously haven't, done in 26 years... uh, pick up a banana, peel a banana and eat it without it squishening... I can't wait to get one of these in a real environment, a home environment, and actually my wife can't either. She's going, oh yeah, I got lots of stuff for you to do."
posted by kliuless on Feb 19, 2008 - 59 comments

The FIRST ("For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology") robotics competition has recently begun it's 2007 competition season. The competition, which began and still enjoys it's greatest popularity in the United States, challenges high-school students and mentors to design and build a (teleoperated) robot to play a game in six weeks. Founded by Dean Kamen, of segway, IBOT, the first home dialysis machine, and clean drinking water fame founded the competition in 1988 to inspire students to enter the engineering profession. Every year a new challenge is put forth, and this year's game involves placing inner-tubes on a cylindrical rack in addition to lifting other team's robots. A sizeable community has sprung up around FIRST, with much attention paid to Dean Kamen's ideal of gracious professionalism which is like sportsmanship without the sports. The 2007 regional competitions provide teams an opportunity to show off their work. If you're interested in getting involved, or just watching the events, FIRST provides a handy Event Locator.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms on Mar 8, 2007 - 14 comments

Send in the clowns: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has submitted a patent for the Man-Cannon, a catapult designed to hurl SWAT teams and emergency workers onto the roofs of tall buildings, human-cannonball style. The inventor? He's none other than Dean Kamen.
posted by fandango_matt on May 18, 2006 - 34 comments

The Centaur Three years after its Human Transporter was supposed to change the world, Dean Kamen's innovation factory unveils a successor that just wants to have fun.
posted by Shanachie on Jan 24, 2005 - 18 comments

Present day Thomas Edison strikes again. More fine stuff from the guy who brought you the Segway HT. Dean Kamen, and his fine folks at DekaResearch, appear to have invented a device which promises to save countless lives across the globe, power villages, and runs on water. What's next? The perpetual motion machine?
posted by IndigoSkye on Nov 17, 2002 - 55 comments

Oh no...not again... In the latest twist to the long-running Ginger saga, it's now being rumored that the two-wheeled device unveiled by inventor Dean Kamen last December isn't in fact the real deal.
posted by mathis23 on Aug 19, 2002 - 39 comments

The Segway revolution has begun. "Three Atlanta, Georgia organizations are the first to buy a fleet of Segway transporters." "Fleet," what a visually scary word. Forget priests touching little boys in naughty places and the numerous wars going on in this world, the fact someone actually bought a Segway is CNN’s new top story.
posted by Werd7 on Apr 24, 2002 - 33 comments

IT's about to get a helluva lot better. Dean Kamen applies for several patents for design and production of his version of the Stirling engline, the holy grail of mechanical efficiency. Apparently DEKA has perfected technology enabling the engine to smoothly produce electricity and transfer it to anything, be it a power grid or a Segway, with less pollution than a gas stove. Kamen asserts that the engine can run on everything from cow dung to nuclear material. Could this be the cure for energy crises and dependance on big, foreign oil? (See also the MSNBC story.)
posted by sixfoot6 on Apr 16, 2002 - 33 comments

Dean Kamen does a lecture from his Ginger. Compelling broadband video clip from the recent Harvard Cyberposium (official site), where the man on the two-wheeled scooter talks about physics, Enron, dot-bust and everything - while trundling around on his machine. Paradigm-busting moment of realisation: he looks disabled, like he can't actually walk. Seems like John Hockenberry's dream - "When you think disability, think zeitgeist" - is coming true.
posted by theplayethic on Feb 25, 2002 - 18 comments

Want to be the first kid on the block to own a Segway? Amazon and Dean Kamen are auctioning off three of them. All proceeds go to Dean's non-profit organization, FIRST.
posted by corpse on Feb 19, 2002 - 10 comments

Although there is no mention on Good Mornins America's website, according to this Wired.com article, Diane Sawyer announced that they would reveal Dean Kamen's intensely hyped invention on Monday, December 3rd. Perhaps it will actually deserve to have been listed as one of the best inventions of 2001 by Time Magazine.
posted by UrbanFigaro on Nov 29, 2001 - 22 comments

Project 'IT' Tons of info about this mysterious device! Does 'IT' stand for Individual Transportation?
posted by stevridie on Mar 11, 2001 - 17 comments

IT gets a domain. The interesting thing is now maybe less how world-changing IT might be (most dreamers I know, at least, have gone from wide-eyed Bradburian dreaming to the expectation of disappointment to resigned cynicism by now), but how the commercial game will play itself out. I feel all dirty now.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on Jan 27, 2001 - 6 comments

"IT," also known as "Ginger," has not yet been released by its inventor, but we'll be glad to notify you by e-mail when we actually know what IT is and if IT will be available for purchase from Amazon.com.
posted by endquote on Jan 24, 2001 - 6 comments

Dean Kamen denies everything!

DEKA is currently working on several exciting projects. The book proposal referred to one. However, the leaked proposal quoted several prominent technology leaders out of context, without their doubts, risks and maybes included. This, together with spirited speculation about the unknown, has lead to expectations that are beyond whimsical. We have a promising project, but nothing of the earth shattering nature that people are conjuring up.

posted by palegirl on Jan 13, 2001 - 12 comments

A wearable car? is this really 'IT'?
posted by tiaka on Jan 12, 2001 - 40 comments

What is "IT"? National Medal of Technology winner demos some kind of hush-hush invention to Bezos, Jobs, and Doerr: the consensus view is that it's bigger than the PC. Either one of the most stunning inventions of all time or one of the most stunning publicity stunts of all time. Possibly both.
posted by grimmelm on Jan 9, 2001 - 77 comments