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Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

ogotechnology.com

121–130 of 195 posts

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#121
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a hearing aid wearer, I can probably think of a couple of ways hearing aids could be used to improve hearing of non-impaired[1] but you definitely don't want just "broad spectrum amplification" (hearing every small click, clack & whir gets old fast). Think more along the lines of decrease of external noise in a cafe so you can focus on a conversation, a tunable amplification of quiet sounds, as replacements for bl…

I appreciate your healthy outlook toward your hearing loss. With my family background, it seems inevitable that my hearing will continue to get worse than it already is. I want to take your attitude as an inspiration rather than the less healthy attitudes that I often see.

It's interesting that glasses, sitting in the middle of your face are seen as less of an issue than hearing aids. It's really just a random whim of fashion.

I think this may change soon. It will almost certainly change if a device targeting non-impaired gets any traction.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#122
post #13

Looks very cool. One thing I noticed about the video introduction is the speaker is explicitly talking to the viewer as if he or she is not the target audience, e.g. "while you and I may take this for granted ..." and "the disabled are exactly the same as you and me ..."

I thought the same thing. I wanted to send a link to my father, who suffers from post-polio syndrome and could benefit from an innovation like this, but I'm concerned the tone would offend him.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#123

Oh god, reminds me of the Wall-E hover chairs used by the humans who have basically ceased moving... https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wall-e+hover+chairs&tbm=is...

I'm really not sure why everyone is downvoting this! It doesn't help that I'm hovering around 501 karma :-) Seriously though I'll never use downvoting (apart from say, racist, homophobic, rude and extremely wrong comments) because I think it's bad for discussion; if your aim is blandness then I would say that downvoting is great but I still maintain that a comment with lots of people in disagreement (for it and again…

as pg has said many times, it's OK to downvote for disagreement.

I try not to downvote for mere disagreement, though. There has to be something more to the comment that makes it not merely disagreeable, but a net negative to conversation. In this particular case, the Wall-E association serves to further the stigma for the disabled by emphasizing laziness, when part of the design for this device is to reduce stigma by creating a cool wheelchair.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#124

One 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.

Yeah, bicycles seem to suffer from this too, and helicopters.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#126
post #81

Earlier 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)?

Of course, there's nothing to stop the manufacturers programming in different modes, imagine speed limits, sports modes with higher torque and lower battery life, etc, etc. If some such "The operator is prone to seizures" mode were to exist, to require more prolonged sustained input from a user, or to move very slowly, after "double inputting" an intent, I can see this being quite safe, a "lean forwards twice to toggle moving forwards at 3mph" may well be a totally acceptable interface for some subset of people.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having problems walking is having problems walking. Judging the disabled because you think they deserve it doesn't make them healthy again. I'm not sure what it accomplishes, to be honest.

I think the idea is that you can have problems with walking that could be fixed by walking (I am currently in a situation like that after a knee surgery). I cases like that, this would not be a (objectively) helpful device. But I do not consider myself qualified on this topic, as I have no idea how far the obesity problem has gone in the US.

If you have -limited- mobility then a device that can get you through everyday life instead of limiting your everyday life to your current mobility level is beneficial. Your hypothetical future mobility is not the point. If you can only walk 1 mile then this lets you get to something 2 miles away until you get to the point where you can walk those two miles. Working with an occupational therapist is obviously a complete therapy.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#130

Is "personal transportation" a new euphemism for "wheelchair"? I've never heard that before.

If it's not (legally) a wheelchair, it doesn't need FDA approval, and from what I understand FDA approval is an extremely expensive process (as in, "increase unit price by hundreds of thousands of dollars" expensive).
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