News

Segway: A mobile electronic device, with no Internet links!

Cities, said the inventor of the Segway scooter, will be designed around his self-balancing invention which makes feet obsolete - but has no compute power.

Segway is a scooter. It has been incredibly hyped, and so, when I first heard that the Segway was a mobile electronic device, naturally, I began to think of all the neat computing technology you could have in one.

It weighs 65 pounds! - so you could add a complete mobile Celeron PC to the thing without affecting its weight, or its battery life.

I was disappointed. It has no computing technology at all, except the electronics needed to make it work. Now, this makes sense. First production should be simple; one innovation at a time.

At the same time, it's worth thinking about what might be done. After all, to launch a high-tech mobile device in the year 2001 without any mobile comms hardware, without any Internet access, without accessible any processing power, is pretty weird.

Perhaps I'm weird, too, but the basic scooter wouldn't interest me; I like to walk everywhere; and any expert on varicose veins will tell you about the dangers of standing still. Better to sit, than stand; better to walk than to sit.

Also, the novelty is wasted on me; I used a device pretty much like this when I was a kid. To be sure, it didn't have a battery, nor was it powered by anything except my arms. But it's quite true that it's very, very easy to keep one of these balanced.

If you want to test it out, go get an axle with two wheels on it. An obsolete wheelchair would provide it.

Put your feet on the axle, crouch down on your haunches between the wheels, and hold the tyres with your hands. You'll discover you can whizz along like magic. You can even go up and down stairs. If you feel yourself toppling forward, you push the wheels, which stops you falling, but also accelerates the whole device, balancing you again. And if you are falling backwards, just pull the wheels back - the device brakes, and you come neatly back up on top. It's really easy.

As a result, I can tell you that the Segway thing probably doesn't work quite like you think it does. Yes, it uses gyros, but not to hold it up; they're just to sense when it is falling over. Then if you're falling forwards, it speeds up; if you're toppling backwards, it brakes.

If it really were gyro-stabilized, it would only need one wheel. It would also weigh a couple of hundred pounds.

If you want to watch it work, download the video from the web site; but be warned! - too many people are interested in this device for it to be likely that you'll have an easy time downloading.

Suppose, just for fun, that we assume that with the Mk II, Segway will segue into clever comms technology. It could have a GPS for navigation purposes. Possibly, it could use biometric recognition to make sure that if you don't have my fingerprints, you can't steal my $3,000 toy. It should have some kind of navigational pilot computer, too, so that it can learn its way around familiar routes. Heck, it would even be neat if it came when I called.

All that's possible ... but above all, I'd want it to have Internet access.

No, I don't want to surf the Web as I scoot along - I have some respect for basic transport safety! But I carry a lot of high-tech gear around these days, starting with a GSM phone, and including an MP3 player, a PDA (often in the same device!) and, usually, a notebook PC. And when I'm away from the office, they're switched off.

Here's my plan: build the fastest integrated comms system you can into the scooter. When it's in a GSM area, use GSM data. When it reaches a GPRS transmitter, step up to GPRS. If you find yourself in a "hot spot" for WiFi networking, log onto the nearest DHCP server and get broadband data. And all your devices can access this data (wirelessly) through the proxy in the Segway.

Of course, this assumes that Segway II will have Bluetooth wireless. By the time it comes out, most new phones will - so why wouldn't Segway?

What, I suppose you want to know, will the data be that you're accessing? Heck, it could be anything. It could be that you're downloading email while you scoot along. It could be that you're backing up your name and address book. Or you could be getting news bulletins over your Bluetooth hands-free earphone, or just listening to music. I simply don't know. And, to be honest, I don't care. I do know that if you provide a computing platform, someone clever tends to find a useful way of playing with it.

No, I suppose this wouldn't follow the excellent "keep it simple, stupid!" adage; it would be pretty complex, and few would want the complications of setting up all this automation. But it's an interesting mental exercise; what would you do with a mobile platform that was also a mobile data platform? And mobile data platforms will be where the future is going.

In its current form, Segway looks like a brilliant idea, at least for niche areas, like working in a warehouse. Or maybe, at trade exhibitions. Or museums. But on the open urban landscape, I'm not convinced.

On the sidewalks of city streets? at 15 miles per hour? I don't think so. On the roads? - well, after you, Sir ... and after that truck. In the Underground railway? Hardly; I get hostile looks today, just wearing a rucksack, because of the space it takes up. And the main problem will be: what do you do with it when the battery runs flat? It's heavy!

Apparently, they're testing some on postal delivery officials in some (secret) town or other as a test. That's clever, because it will probably lead to sales of a quite a few thousand models, which will pay for the research that DEKA R&D will need to produce the next design. And there are several business applications, which will be worth watching.

But that next design has to be a mobile Internet appliance, or I'm not interested. Unless, of course, Santa happens to be packing one up for me ...