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The same way one can walk, or run, the person using the device can adjust his or her speed to their conditioning. I don't really understand the dismissal of the idea because one could go fast with it.
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Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
111–120 of 195 posts
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#112Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#113This looks like a huge improvement over a wheelchair (have you ever tried the joystick control on an electric wheelchair?). Way better mobility. And it looks cool. Completely the opposite feeling of watching someone on a Segway, which could make even the coolest person look like a mall cop.
> (have you ever tried the joystick control on an electric wheelchair?)
I have, and they suck. But the main reason they suck is because they've been neutered so they're useable for a wider range of people.
Many people who use electric wheelchairs also have problems with fine motor control, seizures, etc. so the joystick has a lot of filtering with associated slow response and staggered acceleration.
I know people in wheelchairs who otherwise had no problems with fine motor skills that had electronically-minded friends help them to upgrade the chairs and replace the control unit. Those wheelchairs go fast after some modding.
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same way one can walk, or run, the person using the device can adjust his or her speed to their conditioning. I don't really understand the dismissal of the idea because one could go fast with it.
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>I am dismissing this thing because it's strictly worse than the best solutions we have now: cars, bikes, motorcycles, and our own feet.
This this is for the disabled.
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is probably to make clear that this is not a Wall-E device or a bicycle replacement. Even with that clear language, multiple people here did not get that.
There's something sad about that so many cases of technological innovation in physical space seem to remind people of Wall-E.
To be fair, that's exactly what it looks like until you watch the video. And some people may not be able to stream video at their work. The page talks about "personal transportation" and doesn't mention the disabled once.
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maaaaybe there would be heuristics that would interpret such wild movement as unhealthy and trigger a medical alert.
Can such a heuristic distinguish wild movement from basketball (as shown in the video)?
It wouldn't be hard to put bluetooth on the controller and tell it "this user is a seizure risk" vs "this user is playing basketball."
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#117One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it would be extremely dangerous. It would keep them in the seat but interpret their movements as erratic hard accelerations and sharp turns.
> One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it would be extremely dangerous
You're right. However, I suspect there are a lot of people who want this precisely because it's an electric wheelchair that's not been designed for the lowest common denominator.
Most of the electric wheelchairs seem to want their target market to be "all disabled people". This means you have to limit the speed, agility, control sensitivity, etc. so even people with (say) Cerebral Palsy can control them without putting them in danger.
There is a market for disabled people with full arm control and no proclivity for seizures who just want a fast, efficient way to get around. Right now I think the most popular way is to buy an electric wheelchair and mod it, but there's probably a market there for an off-the-shelf solution.
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#118Judging by all the comments here from people who evidently didn't watch the video, they could really use a bit more explanatory text on the home page.
Video is a bad way to convey information on a website, especially one targeting disabled folks.
This is one of the better usecases for video. I can't parse a video quickly, and an interview is a rather lengthy way to receive information if the only value is spoken text. Not the case here. The number one piece of information people want when hitting the site is how it works. They went with bootstrap and the embedded video isn't responsive but no one really gives a shit because as long as it can be clicked you can get a product demo.
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#119This looks like a huge improvement over a wheelchair (have you ever tried the joystick control on an electric wheelchair?). Way better mobility. And it looks cool. Completely the opposite feeling of watching someone on a Segway, which could make even the coolest person look like a mall cop.
It does avoid bearing the medical equipment tag, the old tech metal cruft, disabled .. none of that comes to mind when I saw the video. It might help everybody forget about the condition and start acting normal again. It feels slightly unsafe though, just a bit.
> "It does avoid bearing the medical equipment tag"
In my mind, that's a huge negative, because it makes it a lot harder to get insurance to even partially cover the cost.
Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
It does avoid bearing the medical equipment tag, the old tech metal cruft, disabled .. none of that comes to mind when I saw the video. It might help everybody forget about the condition and start acting normal again. It feels slightly unsafe though, just a bit.
I did find myself wondering about whether it should have a seatbelt. You'd probably need to ask a regular wheelchair user, though. Do wheelchair basketballers use seatbelts?
Maybe not. This one seems to have some kind of control loop for steering, probably based on contact forces. The control loop surely is designed to catch you and keep you upright before the contact force gets too low, no matter how hard you try to break. (As opposed to a joystick-based break.) But sure, it won't prevent you from driving into an obstacle.