Ibot Featured in Discovery Star Wars Special

[Joe Lambie]

Flipping through cable I came across the science of star wars on Discovery, and they are talking about Ibot, and interviewing an actual user. Excellent piece about the good of one of Dean's inventions. The guy was extremely adament about the value of his Ibot, saying it very likely has extended his life. Very cool piece.

[dlavery]

Dang! You beat me to it! I just saw the same thing. It was a very positive piece, focused on the iBot, with just a quick mention of Dean and the Segway.

-dave

[Erin Rapacki]

What's an iBOT?

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Erin Rapacki

What's an iBOT?

The INDEPENDENCE® iBOT™ 3000 Mobility System, a patented gyro-balanced personal mobility system that provides new levels of freedom and accessibility for people with disabilities, was approved by U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August, 2003.

http://www.jnj.com/innovations/new_features/IBOT.htm

[Daniel Brim]

Greg, she's joking. She worked for DEKA (check her signature).

Good one Erin!

[Erin Rapacki]

YUP! I spent 6 months last year as an intern on the iBOT at DEKA. I miss riding it around Manchester on sunny April afternoons

[opnickc]

The monday episode was all about robots, but no mention of FIRST.

And from this footage of Dean Kamen, we know that the show's producers knew about FIRST, and simply chose to leave it out. Something about that is unsettleing to me.

Still, great little snipit about Dean Kamen and the iBot.

[Nitroxextreme]

this is alittle off the subject but i wound if we could find out what teams where in the background

that would be a cool thing to know

[miketwalker]

Originally Posted by opnickc

And from this footage of Dean Kamen, we know that the show's producers knew about FIRST, and simply chose to leave it out. Something about that is unsettleing to me.

In all honesty, I think it's amazing how much publicity FIRST does get as it is. I mean, 99% of the time when you hear Dean Kamen's name, you quickly hear something about FIRST. I'm actually surprised we see it so incredibly much. I don't think it really upsets me that they left FIRST out... some producers just don't know enough about it to want to include it. Their main focus was on the technology of iBot, and just because Dean Kamen is behind the iBot, it may not have been the appropriate program for FIRST to be brought up in.

Point is, I think we should be quite thankful for how much publicity networks to tend to give us, and the way this footage was focused on the iBot technology, I can completly understand why FIRST wasn't mentioned. Just another perspective to throw out there.

[jdiwnab]

Originally Posted by miketwalker

Point is, I think we should be quite thankful for how much publicity networks to tend to give us, and the way this footage was focused on the iBot technology, I can completly understand why FIRST wasn't mentioned. Just another perspective to throw out there.

I quite agree. FIRST gets plenty of publicity. Being on the Discovery Chanel would be cool and all, but they pack in so much into those programs that FIRST was crowded out. Dean might have mentioned something about FIRST, but it was probably edit out because of time. Not because the Discovery Channel doesn't like FIRST.

[opnickc]

Originally Posted by miketwalker

In all honesty, I think it's amazing how much publicity FIRST does get as it is. I mean, 99% of the time when you hear Dean Kamen's name, you quickly hear something about FIRST. I'm actually surprised we see it so incredibly much. I don't think it really upsets me that they left FIRST out... some producers just don't know enough about it to want to include it. Their main focus was on the technology of iBot, and just because Dean Kamen is behind the iBot, it may not have been the appropriate program for FIRST to be brought up in.

Point is, I think we should be quite thankful for how much publicity networks to tend to give us, and the way this footage was focused on the iBot technology, I can completly understand why FIRST wasn't mentioned. Just another perspective to throw out there.

I understand what you're saying, FIRST doesn't fit in with the iBot.

However, the day before on that show it was all about robots, including robots that students worked on, but no mention of FIRST.

As far as media coverage, it's impressive from the standpoint of FIRSTers, but think about how many people in the US still don't know anything about it. Not that it's FIRST's fault in any way, in fact FIRST does an extremely good job of getting the word out with the resources they have. It's the fact that FIRST isn't covered more or in more depth on the news and in programs like this.

[Tazlikesrobots]

I saw that! It was cool to see the Ibot featured in the program.

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by opnickc

The monday episode was all about robots, but no mention of FIRST.

And from this footage of Dean Kamen, we know that the show's producers knew about FIRST, and simply chose to leave it out. Something about that is unsettleing to me.

Still, great little snipit about Dean Kamen and the iBot.

Because the show was about technology similar to that found in star wars. I can't think of any resemblance to anything in First that's in star wars besides look it's a robot.