This is NOT Dean Kamen’s web site
It pains me to have to draw attention to something so blatantly obvious, but I’ve received so many emails and comments that it’s obvious some people need it spelled out. Folks, just because Google sent you here doesn’t make it accurate.
So don’t waste your time here trying to get in touch with Kamen - go over to DEKA Research and you might have better luck.
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| Inventor Dean Kamen |
Kamen's life, unlike his inventions, isn't enigmatic. The 49-year-old inventor actually courts attention, holding lavish parties for famous and powerful people, all the while pushing the idea inventors will become the superstars of the 21st century.
He nurtures this belief by operating a nonprofit venture called U.S. First (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) which encourages children and teens to follow an engineering or scientific career path.
“Our culture celebrates one thing: sports heroes,” he said in a recent Wired magazine article, “You have teenagers thinking they're going to make millions as NBA stars when that's not realistic for even one percent of them. Becoming a scientist or an engineer is.”
Kamen's own childhood is filled with scientific achievements and inventions. He's a self-taught physicist whose aptitude for entrepreneurism was already earning him $60,000 a year before he even graduated from high school. One of his biggest jobs as a teenager was to automate the ball drop for New York's Time Square New Year's Eve celebrations.
One of his first highly successful inventions in the 1970s was inspired by his brother, who was a medical student at the time. Kamen invented the first portable infusion pump to assist in the reliable, scheduled delivery of drugs to hospital patients.
Another of his famous, lucrative inventions was a dialysis machine the size of a phone book in the mid-1990s. Up to this point, dialysis machines were large, bulky machines that required patients to make frequent trips to the hospital. Kamen's invention made it possible for patients to have home care, freeing up hospital resources.
“I don't work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people,” Kamen told NBC news last year.
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| Deam Kamen demonstrates the Ibot for former President Bill Clinton
Photo courtesy of NBC News |
What Clinton got to see was the Ibot Transporter. The Ibot (initially developed in the mid-80's) is a super-powered, highly stable wheelchair, capable of climbing stairs without assistance and rolling over unstable terrain. It can also raise the user up on two of its wheels, putting the user at eye-level with a standing person.
To publicize the Ibot, Kamen used one to climb the stairs of the Eiffel Tower in Paris from the ground floor to the restaurant level. He then called prominent venture capitalist John Doerr on his cell phone to boast about his achievement.
Many people point to the Ibot as a possible taking off point for his latest invention, the highly secretive 'Ginger'. Some maintain that Ginger is probably some kind of personal transportation unit, which could be based partially on the Ibot's design.
With all of the publicity surrounding his inventions, Kamen's main goal is to continue development with his company, DEKA Research & Technology, and to spread the good word about his First program.
His goal? To have every student in the U.S. enrolled in his program.
While some naysayers are skeptical of his chances for success, Bill Murphy, a First board member recently told Wired, “You watch. Dean's a schemer. He won't quit until it happens.”
Is it possible to use this incredible technology to create a sort of sleeve for an arm or a leg that will help someone who has had a stroke move their limbs again?