Apr 22 2008Segway Inventor Makes Water Regenerator
Dean Kamen, who invented the Segway and clearly loves himself some denim, has created a new water regenerator. It's called the Slingshot (?) and has no filters whatsoever. It works via vapor condensation distillation and runs on, get this, cow fudge! Not only can the thing crank out perfectly clean water from any source (sea water, mud puddle, sewage, peepee), but it generates enough electricity to power 70 energy-efficient bulbs!
Kamen estimates the units will cost between $1,000 - $2,000 when they go into production and anxiously wants to get them into areas around the world with poor water quality. I'm all for it, and really do hope they reduce the rate of disease caused by nasty stuff in the water supply. While this waits to be seen, there is one thing known for certain -- I'd pee in it.
Happy Earth Day everyone. Go out there and plant trees. Or smoke some (wait, that was Sunday). Well, do something good for this great big ball we call home. But hurry -- the robots are coming.
Worthwhile video of Kamen showing off the machine on the Colbert Report after the jump or here.
Dean Kamen unveils Slingshot, the ultimate water regenerator [dvice]
Reader Comments
1. Ryan - April 22, 2008 5:19 PM
wow this this looks like it could help things a lot. o yeah im first!!!
2. UNCLE NED - April 22, 2008 5:22 PM
Dean Kamen's father was the famous comic-book artist Al Kamen, best known for his work on the legendary EC Comics in the 1940s-50s.
3. Bob - April 22, 2008 5:48 PM
Can you tag this as "Denim Dean" so I can find the article later?
4. Tim - April 22, 2008 6:11 PM
Isn't this old news? As in, several years old? I heard about this a long time ago for sure.
5. notbob - April 22, 2008 6:46 PM
look interesting, and helpful.
6. Scott - April 22, 2008 9:16 PM
@4: Yes it is old news assclown! However, don't you think it is something that needs to be pushed to the forefront as apposed to your i-phone or the designer emblem on your shirt (Hey, lets put a big logo on our garbage and then get stupid, shallow people to buy them and advertise our crap for free!)
This machine can actually save lives people! Imagine needing clean, germ free water after a natural disaster (Katrina) and having this machine around?
7. Mr.Anderson - April 22, 2008 9:43 PM
Well...I for once agree with Karmen....but something's telling me that this doesn't fix the water shortage problem still...since you'd have to be living next to a water source to have this thing do its magic and therein my friends lies the rub.
8. poop - April 22, 2008 9:52 PM
this is great!
9. Josh - April 22, 2008 10:26 PM
#7, any liquid counts.
I smell a bukkake vs water filter battle
10. dick valentine - April 22, 2008 10:56 PM
oh this is great..if u are in the outback of aussie land..but someplace in zimbabwae..and u know what?....it is shit...most places that need clean drinking water..need civil insitutions that are not shiote. governments that care and people that are not stupid. you put this into a poor populated area..it will be stripped in a day for the wiring. people in many parts of the world are retarded..especially canuckistan.
this invention is great in my greenhouse but...not for majority of the world..
11. SmokingGirl - April 22, 2008 11:23 PM
I detest Earth Day. And not because I'm one of those "evil" Conservatives, but because of the self-righteous "Sermon from the Mount" type articles that come out every year because of it.
But kudos to this guy for inventing such an amazing water cleansing system. I wish I was that inventive.
12. Chase - April 23, 2008 1:01 AM
that ryan dude he knows what hes talking about
see ya at school tomorrow man
13. hollywood_hillbilly - April 23, 2008 1:49 AM
Texas Tuxedo!
14. RingerINC - April 23, 2008 8:36 AM
What powers it?
I mean you're evaporating then condensing water, so there must be some energy input. Also, wouldn't substances with a similar boiling point be able to pass through the filter. Like if you drop vodka down the in pipe, you'd be left with some ethanol in your pure water...
15. Tim - April 23, 2008 9:04 AM
#6 - what the hell do you mean "pushed to the forefront"? This thing has been known about for YEARS and yet I see no fully industrialised version. There is nobody reading this, who is capable and willing to finance the project, that has not already heard about it or been approached.
So what do you expect me to do? Feel good about his product? Tell my friends to think it's a good idea? That'll make it a success for sure! Although of course, they'll turn around and go, "Yeah I heard about that ages ago. Where is it then?"
Get real you idiot. While I appreciate it's a good idea with good intentions, don't blame me for getting tired for being told about a technology that's been around for years and hasn't done anything. Last I checked this was supposed to be a site for NEW cool tech products. Not a site for advertising things we should have some sort of feel-good sentiment for, but can do nothing about. Way to mentally masturbate, man! Way to go!
If anyone actually had some genuine NEWS about it though - maybe then I'd be interested.
16. Scott - April 23, 2008 9:14 AM
This is great news, mostly for the town he lives in (same town I live in) which has massive amounts MTBE in its ground water!
17. Scott - April 23, 2008 9:39 AM
@15: You don't get it and I'm not going to spend hours explaining it to you.
Hey SG, I'm conservative too! I'll bet you never guessed that.
18. Scott - April 23, 2008 10:09 AM
By the way, this unit is not the same technology as that which produces water from humidity in the air. Furthermore, although it has been debuted for a few months now it is not "years" old.
19. Tim - April 23, 2008 12:21 PM
#17/18 haha, sorry but you're clearly the one who doesn't "get it". From what you've said so far I feel slightly sorry for your obvious ignorance, so I'll point you in the right direction.
It took me less than 30 seconds to do a quick google search on the technology. I think you'd probably learn a lot if you spent as much time educating yourself.
The Slingshot was featured in 2003 in Time Magazine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen#cite_note-2
Featured in several articles YEARS ago:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/16/technology/business2_futureboy0216/index.htm
http://alfin2300.blogspot.com/2006/12/dean-kamens-advanced-stirling-engine.html
http://www.gartner.com/research/fellows/asset_55323_1176.jsp
Patents filed in 2002/2003:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7340879.PN.&OS=PN/7340879&RS=PN/7340879
Well done dude! You win at ignorance.
20. Blackout - April 23, 2008 1:01 PM
@15 - you're such a tool... Just because most of us have lives and don't spend each day like yourself, reading blogs online and masturbating while thinking how smart we are; doesn't mean the rest of us catch each of these genuinely useful posts when the initially occur. These rare repeat posts shed light on topics that most of us may have missed while living outside of MMORPG where we enjoy the sun and banging our super hot wives/gfs and thus may not have been aware of these articles until an occassion like Earth Day provides a perfectly legitimate excuse to have it posted again.
21. TIm - April 23, 2008 2:10 PM
I apologize to all. My name is Tim, and I'm an asshole. I live in my car, which oddly enough, has internet service. I do not like to work. I do not like to be wrong. Mostly I like to masturbate to reruns of "The Love Boat". I also like to eat walnuts, in the shell. Anyway, forgive me for being a jerk, I am lonely and possibly have genital warts.
22. SmokingGirl - April 23, 2008 2:22 PM
Well this has gotten funny...this calls for coffee. That's right, black silk coffee while wearing a black silk chemis.
23. Tim - April 23, 2008 3:25 PM
ahahaha that's it, change your tack! "Oh shit, he's right... uhm... well, you have no life!" Poor stupid people. It's ironic since the reason I actually heard about this was by being in touch with life and general affairs, and doing something called TALKING to ACTUAL PEOPLE. I know these may be foreign, extremely complex concepts to you, since apparently being able to do a 30 second google search means I must spend all my life on a computer. Oh no! That must mean I'm incredibly smart! hahaha, you have no idea how stupid you making yourself sound. It's not me making you look dumb, it's you, honest to god.
24. Blackout - April 23, 2008 4:04 PM
@Tim - 'Talking to actual people?' TIm are you for real? You call it 'Talking to actual people' when your mom throws you some scraps through your cage and you grunt and squeak to her in return? She then looks at you curiously and then runs away while you mangle your food before blowing your load to your next 'hot google search' Way to go homo, you said it yourself, you google search this and figure out that - boy I bet all 3 of your friends - Mr Stack-of-Poo, Johnny-the-John-Bucket and Richard Gere's Hamster must be great company in your cage.
25. Chris - April 24, 2008 8:18 AM
It has been made public in 2003, even though some dick tried to chance the Wikipedia article to state its invented in 2008. Way to go poluting the information highway moron.