Business 2.0 has an article about Dean Kamen’s latest inventions – “Eighty percent of all the diseases you could name would be wiped out if you just gave people clean water,” says Kamen. “The water purifier makes 1,000 liters of clean water a day, and we don’t care what goes into it. And the power generator makes a kilowatt off of anything that burns.” Link. See our Maker profile of Dean Kamen in MAKE volume 04.
10 thoughts on “Invention may bring power and clean water to the world’s poor…”
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“Kamen’s goal is to produce machines that cost $1,000 to $2,000 each”
So, if these go the way of the segway, they’ll actually release at $20,000 a piece and still not have sufficient production for another 5 years after their target?
Eh, Dean Kamen doesn’t like combat robots, so he’s an imbecile.
On top of that, segways are a waste of resources- there could be built a dozen electric bikes for the price of one of them..
Hmmm.. 1,000 liters a day… is that from 2000 liters originally? I know quite a bit about this technology and what he is showing there will never produce 1000 liters a day. Period. BUT I am sure he can take Bush for a shakey ride. :)
Hmmm.. 1,000 liters a day… is that from 2000 liters originally? I know quite a bit about this technology and what he is showing there will never produce 1000 liters a day. Period. BUT I am sure he can take Bush for a shakey ride. :)
Well, to be fair, the segway solves a different transportation problem than a bike… it’s just that there is a barrier to achieving critical mass with them. It’s not so much better than walking that it’s worth the price to the people that would find use for it. The people that can afford it probably don’t really need it that much. If it could achieve that critical mass and start to have the infrastructure support it, then it *might* be a different story.
Also to be fair, I would hope that the market for this device would be a little larger and more urgent than the market for the segway, helping to achieve economies of scale better.