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Biotech / Medical : Dean Kamen and Ginger ??? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dee Jay who wrote (114)	1/15/2001 1:38:51 AM
From: Level Head	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 377

Regarding the Stair Climbing Chair: Each "foot" would be centered only about one foot (ahem) from the center of gravity of the chair. A fully loaded chair with occupant is going to be in the broad range of 200 to 500 pounds, and a reinforced foot with splayed "thumb" should not find this difficult. Each foot, from the front, would resemble the letter L with the horizontal member turned inward and projecting well past the center of gravity. The thumbs actually overlap each other; they could therefore not "slide" forward but must pick up and step forward. Of course, on level ground the wheels are in play instead. By the way, the Kamen chair does not use this foot at all; the dual wheels are a different approach. During a power failure, the best that you could hope for is that everything locks in position. I can see no way to "autorotate" down to the bottom of the stairs -- the gyroscopic stabilization is too important in this process. I share your concerns about the marketability of such a device -- it is definitely a high-end appliance for a very specialized application and special conditions. Now, if it could just climb the ladders in U.S. Sub's $80 million dollar private submarine-yacht...with the deck pitching... {g} Level Head