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Secret invention "Ginger" may be motorized scooter

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Eric Auchard and Tim Castle

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NEW YORK/LONDON: The mystery invention code-named "Ginger" that has

set the technology world abuzz may be little more than a motorized mini-scooter,

judging from a recent patent application that came to light on Friday.

A Dec. 14, 2000, filing with the World Intellectual Property Organization

available on the Internet at http://www.wipo.org

describes a "class of transportation vehicles for carrying an individual

over ground ... that is unstable with respect to tipping when ... not

powered."

A picture of this "personal mobility vehicle" shows what appears to

be a young girl balanced on a two-wheeled scooter. The patent application fits

descriptions made in broadcast reports by people claiming to have seen

prototypes of the vehicle.

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A proposal for a planned book about the mysterious invention described it as

possibly more important than the World Wide Web and capable of generating

fantastic riches, exciting a wave of media speculation over the machine.

Harvard Business School Press is said to have paid $250,000 for the book

detailing the device, also referred to as "IT," which is set to be

unveiled in 2002 by millionaire inventor Dean Kamen. Kamen's previous inventions

include a portable insulin pump and a wheelchair that climbs stairs.

A spokeswoman for the publisher declined to comment on Friday.

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Called easy to assemble



The invention is said to take just 10 minutes to assemble using simple tools,
according to details from the book proposal published by media industry watchers

Inside.com. Each Ginger object could cost less than $2,000. Top computer

industry figures and investment bankers were named as backers, Inside.com said.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Kamen, 49, declined to reveal much about

the device, saying, "While our projects are in the development phase and

have client confidentiality requirements, it is impossible for us to comment

further."

Calls to Kamen and his company, DEKA Research of Manchester, New Hampshire,

seeking comment on the patent application were not returned.

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After seeing a prototype, Jeff Bezos, the founder of online retailer

Amazon.com, was quoted as saying that IT "is a product so revolutionary

you'll have no problem selling it. The question is, are people going to be

allowed to use it?"

A scooter like one described in Kamen's recent application might piggyback on

the popularity of Razor, the manually powered scooter that became a hit with

American youth over the past year. More than 5 million of the devices have been

sold, inspiring a host of imitators, Razor USA LLC said in December.

Netizens speculate



Ginger was the subject of an hour long US talk show on CNN. On the Internet,
debate raged over what the device might be, with opinions ranging from

enthusiastic to sarcastic to bombastic.

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Some questioned if the device was not, in fact, a personal Hovercraft, with

the patent meant to throw the public off the real scent. Others argued it was an

updated version of Kamen's wheelchairs or a sophisticated can opener or a

clothes iron.

"So what! This is all hype to sell a book," one skeptic said on an

online message board. "You people in the media need to be a little more

skeptical. If it's so great, why does it have to be a secret?"

Revolutionary personal transport systems have been revealed to an expectant,

and disbelieving, world before.

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In January 1985 British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair unveiled his

three-wheeler C5, a kind of surfboard tricycle in which plucky drivers lay on

their backs and navigated the roads feet first.

Powered by battery and pedaling, the low-level vehicle was invisible to

trucks. It was immediately condemned by Britain's Automobile Association as

"a hazard to the occupant and other road users."

Sales were minimal and production stopped within months. Sinclair's

reputation as the distinguished inventor of cheap calculators and computers was

in tatters, his C5 a national joke.

A satirical song occasioned by the invention of the C5 contains the line

"Don't want a Jag, don't want a Merc, I want to look like an absolute berk

(idiot)."

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.

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