
Ogo, a new take on personal transportation - prawn
http://ogotechnology.com/
======
DavidSJ
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 ..."

~~~
notahacker
The video is presumably made to be shared amongst a wider audience than the
target market.

And I guess that for a disabled person it would be a huge psychological win to
have able-bodied people looking with _envy_ rather than _sympathy_ at their
means of locomotion.

~~~
kevinmchugh
Reminds me of this great TED talk, where one person is jealous that someone
with prosthetic legs can change their height:
[https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetic...](https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics/transcript?language=en#t-405000)

~~~
harryjo
Hmm, how does the law (DMV, passport office, etc) deal with that?

~~~
dereke
I don't think it is illegal to wear heels so probably in a similar way.

------
paulsutter
This 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.

~~~
scribu
I agree and I think the cool factor comes from the fact that users of Ogo
_need_ it in order to move without their hands being tied up and also that it
actually takes a bit of muscle effort to operate. Compare to Segways, which
are associated with laziness (at least in my mind).

~~~
TeMPOraL
Segways are cool. Don't have one but I got a chance to test it once.

I can see how they could be useful for things like malls and factory floors,
in a similar way a kick scooter is. But you know what? Kick scooter is even
cooler! The speeds you can achieve on a good concrete surface are
exhilarating!

~~~
masklinn
From the outside, powered monowheel seem cooler and less obnoxious than
segways. The speed of some of them seems utterly ridiculous though (some
brands/models are quoted at 20mph)

~~~
glibgil
No, no they don't seem cooler. They actually trigger a grade school tripping
reflex making others want to stick out their foot and topple the rider.

~~~
TeMPOraL
People sometimes behave like douchebags. This is probably the same phenomenon
that leads some to call users of another piece of technology "glassholes".

------
ThomPete
It's very easy to get tied up in valuations, unicorns, growth metrics and
living the life as a startups with a great idea but no way to monetize it
until you get 500millioner users.

But at the end of the day they most optimal recipe for success still is

1) Find a real problem 2) Build a solution 3) Start selling

There are alternatives to growth-hacking and content marketing and what other
tricks are out there.

Just look around you there are real problem everywhere where the solution
doesn't need a marketing budget. It just needs to make itself known. And it's
revenue from day one.

Love every single second of this.

~~~
triangleman
While I agree with the spirit of your post, let us step back and think clearly
about where your criticism lies.

Think about what it means to "hack" on something.

Today we often use the term to describe a programmer working feverishly on his
software project "hacking away".

But based on your use of the term ("growth-hacking") we can see that it can
often be used in the sense of hacking a problem into something more
manageable. Jury-rigging, taking a smart shortcut, duct taping things
together. Working smart, not hard [1]. Is that not what most of the people
here are aiming to do?

So let's not get offended that someone else's hack is different from your own.

You admit that selling is important, and yet a good solution "doesn't need
marketing", because I suppose the product sells itself? This board is filled
with hard-earned lessons from fellow hackers who had a great product but no
market(ing), and ultimately failed.

This "ogo" product is certainly not getting revenue from day one.

[1] [http://threevirtues.com/](http://threevirtues.com/)

~~~
cushychicken
Man, you completely missed the point of what OP was saying in your rush to
talk semantics.

He was saying that this product showcases a lot of thoughtful development to
solve a problem that a non-trivial number of people have that can't really be
solved through marketing shortcuts. And I think we both know exactly the sort
of marketing shortcuts he/she is talking about - the apptification of
everything, the hype endemic in software product launches, the VC blogosphere.
That sort of hack doesn't apply here at all. Taking a Segway as an inspiration
or starting point for this product? Maybe that's the hacking you're trying to
associate with by posting this. But that's not what he was talking about.

OP is saying what a breath of fresh air it is to see someone sink such time
and effort into making a well designed solution to an actual problem, and that
kind of effort creates marketability commensurate to the development.

~~~
triangleman
I didn't miss the point. Of course I agree that it's wonderful to see a
product that solves an actual problem. My point was that even in the case of a
clearly useful and "marketable" product, it is not at all clear that it will
ultimately be successful and change people's lives. The Segway itself is a
great example of this: The product works, it does what it claims it will, but
nobody owns one. Society is no better off because of it, unfortunately.

I used the rubric of "hacking" to demonstrate that there is a middle road--
between inflated valuations/expectations and pure engineering prowess--that
will ultimately create life-changing solutions to problems.

Think about Apple's successful products: They did nothing new compared to what
was already on the market. But by creatively _removing_ features they made
their products more marketable and ended up changing the world.

~~~
cushychicken
> I didn't miss the point.

I'm not so sure you didn't. You keep bringing the conversation back to
"hacking", and I'm really unclear as to why. Are you trying to equate hacking
to product design? Because neither Apple nor Segway were hacking anything -
they both saw a consumer experience they wanted to deliver, and then designed
a product that was supposed to deliver it. Both companies took a focused,
highly planned approach to delivering their respective experiences. That's
just about as antithetical to the "try this and see what happens" hacker
mentality as it's possible to get. The only real difference between your
examples was the size of their respective markets. (I say that because the few
people that buy Segways tend to be outspoken about loving them. Or maybe
that's just Woz.)

Now, if the question you were trying to bring up in the first place was "Do we
have any indication that the product designed here actually has some appeal to
its target market?", I would find your statement a little more credible.

------
netcan
Looks cool, but I don't know anything about this market so I can't really
comment directly on utility or prospects. But, to take a tangent:

I think there's a shift that hardware oriented entrepreneurs might mine for
some ideas.

Around web 2.0 time there was a shift where people got more comfortable with
the internet. They used real names, and pictures without expecting this would
inevitably lead to serial killers at the door. Facebook worked because people
agreed to tell the internet their name. Online dating went mainstream.
Twitter, Linkedin, all sorts of sharing become common. The interesting part is
that the technological trends like were only part of the picture. Cultural
shifts were just as important.

Tech is cool now, that's the new trend. Where a calculator watch in the 90s
would get an 8 year old beat up, todays equivalents are status symbols.
Interestingly, glasses became cool in recent years.

So, ideas might be found by looking over old technology that is uncool and
seeing if it can be re-imagined as 2015 tech. A regular electric wheelchair is
uncool. This segway thing is cool.

One real obvious device to think about Apple-ising is hearing aides. Hearing
aids are so uncool 80 year olds don't want to be seen with one. They are all
about being small, flesh colored and "invisible." I think there's a decent
chance a bright green large ear piece might be cool.

And speaking of hearing aids… Can hearing aids improve the hearing of non
impaired people. Can you get better than normal hearing from a hearing aid?

~~~
randlet
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 blue tooth headphones etc (sound quality is not
great currently) stuff along that lines.

> Hearing aids are so uncool 80 year olds don't want to be seen with one. They
> are all about being small, flesh colored and "invisible."

This might be true for older populations but kids can get brightly coloured
hearing aids and moulds[2]! When I was first being fitted for HA's (at age 32)
my audiologist assumed I would want the least visible model possible but I
opted for larger more visible behind the ear models...I _want_ people who I
interact with to be able to see that I have hearing loss. People tend to get
annoyed if you ask them over and over to repeat themselves but are generally
much more patient if they know you are hard of hearing.

[1] Just FYI The term hearing-impaired is somewhat offensive to some people
(not me) who prefer hard-of-hearing or deaf, or Deaf

[2]
[https://www.google.ca/search?q=kids+hearing+aids&num=30&sour...](https://www.google.ca/search?q=kids+hearing+aids&num=30&source=lnms&tbm=isch)

~~~
jessaustin
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.

~~~
netcan
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.

~~~
stegosaurus
I'm not so sure that it's a simple matter of fashion.

Wearing glasses is, for lack of a better term, 'normal'. I don't know the
statistics but probably a quarter of the population has impaired sight (I'm
one of them). Additionally in the majority of cases it presents no handicap at
all once corrected - often it results in acuity above the average.

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

~~~
zyxley
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).

~~~
ljk
So in the end this is a good move? People who need wheelchairs can get them
for cheaper, like how gluten-intolerant people get a lot more choices now that
gluten-free options are getting so popular

~~~
avian
Probably not a good example. I've heard that gluten-intolerant people can no
longer trust a label "gluten free" these days. It is now used as a marketing
device for healthy people and not meaning that it is safe for those with the
medical condition.

~~~
ljk
Didn't know this was happening, sad but not surprised though..

~~~
necessity
You still don't, unless "some stranger in the internet said he heard someone
say" is your knowledge of the situation.

------
dfan
Judging 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.

~~~
ams6110
Video is a bad way to convey information on a website, especially one
targeting disabled folks.

~~~
vonklaus
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.

~~~
hugh4
A video is a good idea for this product, but there should be sufficient text
to tell you what it is and what it does without needing to play the video
anyway, eg if you're in public without earphones or have severely limited
bandwidth,

------
JulianMorrison
So basically a SegWheelchair then?

That will work for people whose core muscles work, and don't flop or twitch.
Which is not everybody. But still a nifty thing.

~~~
azernik
And for that subset, it might be _better_ (healthwise) than a regular electric
wheelchair, since it keeps more muscles working. Smaller market than "everyone
in a wheelchair", but I think (?) it addresses that market well.

------
JulianMorrison
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.

~~~
bpodgursky
Ok... so are cars (in fact, they are much worse), but we survive somehow. I
mean, I guess this is true, but being paralyzed usually does not mean you are
unusually predisposed to seizures. This criticism kind of feels like hunting
for problems.

~~~
openasocket
people who regularly get seizures are not allowed to drive. The laws vary a
lot by country and state and can be looked up here
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy_and_driving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy_and_driving)
Most of the time the law is of the form "you must be seizure-free for <x>
months in order to drive"

~~~
acjohnson55
Right, and I suppose one probably wouldn't buy this if they were prone to
seizures, either. I presume there's enough of a disjunction between people
with impaired mobility and seizure risk for that to not be such a big deal.

------
rco8786
Super cool. However I can't look at this thing and _not_ think Wall-E

~~~
khill
Yep. I actually went as far as googling the Wall-E humans to see how close it
was.

------
tajen
Little marketing point: Shouldn't he put the subscription box on the main page
instead of redirecting to another page?

Excellent speech, excellent copy, short presentation. Is it legal not to write
one's address and privacy policy?

On the other hand, being European, I... applause him for not displaying the
(mandatory) cookie header.

~~~
chronial
As other people here pointed out / got confused by, the lack of textual
information is probably a bigger issue.

------
bluedino
The market for devices like these is a joke. You fall into two categories,
expensive and not that well designed, and inexpensive and very cheaply made
overseas.

The problem you need to solve is getting the insurance companies and Medicare
to pay for your device. You need lobbying and certifications and all that
bureaucracy. No matter how mediocre your product is, you can then sell it like
hotcakes.

------
vomitcuddle
Q&A:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I)

------
t0mk
The site could show a bit more info, e.g. the technical parameters of the
thing. It would be interested to see even for the prototype.

Also, is this how New Zealand accent sounds like?

~~~
syllogism
Yes, that's a New Zealand accent.

~~~
gaz
New Zealander here, its Australian.

~~~
stonith
Australian here, suspect he's spent significant time in both countries because
the way he says 'this' is not how an Australian accent sounds, but other parts
of his speech sound very Australian.

~~~
pandler
I thought it was kiwi too. I've spent more time in NZ than OZ though and am
less familiar with the Australian accent. If this website[1] is correct, then
the company is registered in NZ at least.

[1]
[http://www.infobel.com/en/newzealand/ogo_technology_limited/...](http://www.infobel.com/en/newzealand/ogo_technology_limited/otaki/NZ100610116/businessdetails.aspx)

------
agentgt
I wonder if they have any plans on dealing with stairs. Honestly I think the
arm freedom is a big deal so I think they could come up with some novel ideas
for stairs or other terrain. Bipedal movement (or I guess any number of legs)
is impressive in that it can handle a variety of terrain.

A trite and cheesy observation... it seems we are trying to make machines
learn to walk and humans learn to roll :)

All in all I think the product/idea are great.

~~~
jdsullivan
The iBot was able to "walk" up and down stairs:
[http://www.dekaresearch.com/ibot.shtml](http://www.dekaresearch.com/ibot.shtml)

In retrospect, it's a bit surprising they never enhanced it to operate hands
free like this - it was made by the same folks as the segway and feels like a
natural evolution.

~~~
EvanKelly
I remember talking about the iBot with a wheelchair bound friend when it came
out.

His response was "the people who designed this have obviously never been bound
to a wheelchair". I think I was in 9th or 10th grade at the time, so I don't
remember his reasoning, but I remember the disdain for the invention.

Any iBot users out there that could chime in?

------
visarga
Looks great! What if they added spatial navigation by video camera and voice
control to cover people who have trouble controlling the chair with their body
position.

At least for simple navigation I think the tech is mature enough to make it
today. Just make sure to avoid obstacles and people and find your way from A
to B.

Couple that with the Google car fitted with an automatic docking station and
you have an almost complete system of transport.

------
BillShakespeare
Saw an article with a little backstory about this on Reddit today -
[http://www.infoblizzard.com/the-blog-smog/engineer-
invents-a...](http://www.infoblizzard.com/the-blog-smog/engineer-invents-a-
hands-free-wheelchair-for-best-friend-who-was-left-a-paraplegic-after-skiing-
accident)

------
notahacker
For those people looking at the guy moving around by shifting in his seat and
thinking "I want one!", it looks like this Segway modification is the closest
thing you can actually order:
[http://suigenerisseat.com](http://suigenerisseat.com)

------
AliAdams
I worry that there might be difficulties leaning over and picking things up
without the chair moving.

Imagine dropping something and instinctively leaning over to catch / retrieve
it.

~~~
taejo
The Q&A video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I)
shows a switch which disables side-to-side movement (and a joystick which can
be used to turn when lean-to-turn is disabled).

------
london888
Great idea but I would worry about stability - I'd like to see what happens if
people bump into you - can the user get pushed off the seat?

~~~
arbabu
Even I was thinking the same. A handrest would have been really useful!

------
swayvil
It's the end of man, obviously

[http://imgur.com/deahE27](http://imgur.com/deahE27)

~~~
ljk
Add TV on it -
[http://www.chud.com/articles/content_images/117/WALLE3.JPG](http://www.chud.com/articles/content_images/117/WALLE3.JPG)

------
wgx
It's what the Sinclair C5 could have been, if only battery/motor technology
had allowed...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5)

------
erlend_sh
It suddenly dawned on me that I'll most likely live to experience certain
categories of disability that'll grant you access to technology which will
make you altogether _more_ able-bodied than the average "non-disabled" person.

~~~
marcosdumay
Well, footless runners are already faster than non-disabled ones.

------
sspross
wheelchair from scalevo (ETH zurich), similar "segway tech." including
stairclimbing
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lb_8nmy90c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lb_8nmy90c)

~~~
cowsandmilk
scalevo appears to use a joystick, the hands-free nature of ogo is what I find
the most interesting.

~~~
giarc
Ya when I watched I pictured the user being able to carry their baby while
moving down the street or in a mall.

------
bborud
Unfortunate name.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuSHwdmxM0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuSHwdmxM0)

(I'm probably going to get downvoted for this, but hey, I like to live a
little)

~~~
nsxwolf
He messed up the punchline!

------
rotten
This is right out of Wall-E.

------
baconwagoneer
Here's the founder's website if anyone else was curious like me:
[http://khalsall.com/](http://khalsall.com/)

------
mirimir
What I want is a human-sized quad copter :)

Maybe they'll exist by the time I need one.

~~~
zo1
It's already here, they just need to improve battery tech for more fun:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L75ESD9PBOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L75ESD9PBOw)

------
jfmercer
This is a remarkable innovation. I wish Ogo Tech the best of success.

------
simonhughes22
Wow that's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that!

------
rasur
So, this isn't mainly for disabled people, I take it?

~~~
mrweasel
The title is a bit weird. I don't understand why they call it "personal
transportation". I mean it is personal transportation, for people in wheel
chairs, but not a new take on personal transportation in the way Segway tried
to be.

~~~
prawn
It is personal transportation, just focused on a particular set of users.

------
makenova
How long till Segway decides to get litigious?

------
nitin_flanker
Well the handicapped will feel awesome. This makes them super agile.

------
sigmonsays
Looks like a wheel chair for the disabled.

------
dalacv
If we all ride these, do you think that the handicapped will feel less
alienated?

------
BtM909
I actually saw a disabled guy driving some sort of Segway but with a chair.
That seemed more practical and useful compared to this.

This was in Rome which isn't known for its nicely paved streets.

~~~
darklajid
There used to be the iBot, which looked like an amazing product for people
using a wheelchair today - but it is discontinued.

I remember Michael Kaplan (a Microsoft guy, regularly linked from the old new
things/Chen for character set/encoding/unicode stuff) praising his iBot in
quite some posts.

~~~
ansible
The iBot was apparently reclassified as a class 2 medical device, which makes
certification easier. Allegedly, it is being redesigned, and will go back into
production.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT)

------
andy_ppp
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...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wall-e+hover+chairs&tbm=isch)

~~~
teekert
The movie seems to target disabled people, not fat/unhealthy people.

~~~
andy_ppp
I thought this but the article title is "Ogo, a new take on personal
transportation". I think I'm fine, unless the article title is wrong... It's
been known to happen :-)

~~~
mintplant
Watch the video. The inventor was inspired by a paraplegic friend.

------
ThinkBeat
That is a with some pictures of a beefed up wheelchair and almost no
information whatsoever.

~~~
codewithcheese
Watch the video...

~~~
collyw
Not always possible in work environments.

------
piyushpr134
It has come to this that able bodied men and women need a automated wheelchair
to roam around! Wow. That shitty future that movies has shown is really here!

~~~
prawn
The inventor designed it for his paraplegic friend. It's clearly shown in the
video from the beginning. The entire thrust of the video is about the item
empowering disabled people.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgat4a1TrEM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgat4a1TrEM)

