Kamen's missed opportunity?

The name Dean Kamen doesn’t register with most people.  On others, it’s a name that makes tech heads and engineers salivate because of the wonderment on what is next on Mr. Kamen’s agenda.  Dean’s an inventor, after all, with revolutionary concepts that can change the everyday life of people for the better.

Of course, many people reading ole’ Kill The Web probably have heard about the Segway Human Transporter — the 2 wheeled, self balancing, Bush attacking, personal mobility device.  Some of you might have heard about it’s counterpart, the iBot, which is a revolutionary wheelchair (another self balancing variety that lets those confined to a wheelchair climb stairs.  Some of you may have also heard of Kamen’s water purifier / generator — and maybe realize Dean missed the boat by not shipping one of those things to Iraq.

I caught video of Iraqis forced to drink sewage, I have heard countless times that there is no clean water, there is no power and there is no timetable to have these basic services restored.  Kamen’s invention would have been a great thing to have — even in it’s prototypical form — to present to the Iraqi people in an attempt to improve things for them.

Of course, Dean probably has a reason for holding back on sending one of hese units to Basra or Baghdad or somewhere else inside Iraq?  But at the same time, one has to wonder why DEKA Research and Kamen didn’t decide to take a chance with their prototype design and aid people who need it the most right now.