A revolutionary new wheelchair

A revolutionary new wheelchair

Correspondent John Hockenberry reports on a revolutionary new wheelchair that's designed to really go places.

A first look at a whole new world on wheels. Watch the video of the report.


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		June 30— We have the know-how to fly to the moon, but most people who can’t walk still get around with what’s essentially 200-year-old technology — the wheelchair. One inventor has decided it’s time to get wheelchair riders rolling into the 21st century. He says his machine can take you just about anywhere you want to go. He’s been keeping his top secret invention under wraps — until now.

WHEELCHAIRS CAN GET you around, but they don’t get close enough to the places disabled people might like to go. You’ve heard the expression “confined to a wheelchair?” Well actually, if you think about it, it’s the wheelchairs that are confined to the relatively few smooth, easy-rolling places in the world. But what if somebody came up with a device that, as they say, could go where no wheelchairs have gone before?
It would take someone on a mission. Someone with the money and genius and time to put into the project. It would take someone like Dean Kamen.

Dean Kamen's new invention can take wheelchair riders to new heights.

He’s one of this nation’s most prestigious inventors. He’s a sort of Thomas Edison in the medical world. Among Kamen’s inventions is a portable kidney dialysis machine. His early ideas made him millions, but money is not what drives Dean Kamen.
“I don’t work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people,” says Kamen.
Nine years ago Kamen wanted to improve the life of a young man he happened to see struggling to get his wheelchair up a curb.
“I just fixated on how unreasonable that condition really is,” he says. “And it just seemed to me that the fundamental issue was the world has not been architected for people that are sitting down at 39 inches.”
Kamen thought about this old problem in a revolutionary new way. What if instead of getting a chair that could go upstairs, you could make a machine that could stand up and balance the way humans do?

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“Your mother remembers your first steps. It’s a big deal that humans walk erect,” says Kamen. “It’s difficult to do. But once we’ve learned to do it, we’re capable of dealing with curbs And a world with stairs.”
Kamen and his engineers came up with a two-wheeled balancing prototype that worked and became a top-secret patented invention crammed full of sophisticated gyroscopes, electric motors and computers. Kamen allowed “Dateline” an exclusive peek at it. To our surprise, Kamen’s machine was actually more compact and narrower than a traditional wheelchair.
WHAT IS THIS EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE CAPABLE OF DOING?
It can climb stairs, roll through sand, and can even raise its height to reach the top of shelves. What’s exciting about this device is not the technology, it’s the choices — that you could go from point A to point B anyway you want. And this isn’t some exotic experiment on a device that no one is ever going to see. The builders of this machine intend that it’s going to be used out in the world — and soon.
In order to bring his invention to the mass market, Kamen needed the help of a company with considerable resources. So he got in touch with the Johnson and Johnson corporation. How long before this could actually be seen on the market?
“We think within 18 to 24 months,” says Dr. Robert Gussin, the company’s vice president of technology. “It’s got to go through a rigorous FDA clearance procedure.”
Since a wheelchair is a medical device, it has to be tested by the Food and Drug Administration. It’s more like a drug than like a bicycle or a lawnmower. With the idea that virtually any failure could be catastrophic, Kamen’s engineers have rocked, rolled, bounced, drowned, and pounded their new machine.
Can Dean Kamen’s new device change the world? Nobody knows until the FDA approves it for use outside of the lab and beyond the inventor’s own property. But one thing is certain, the emotional impact can already be felt.
Brace yourself for the price: Dean Kamen’s invention will cost about $20,000 when it becomes available to the public. But because it could spare the expense of customizing homes with ramps and wider doorways, and mechanical lifts in cars, the money spent could be offset in money saved.

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