Leaning Into New Technology––

Betsy Evans Is On A Roll!

By Kaaren Valenta

Standing on what, at first glance, resembles a rotary lawnmower, Betsy Evans leaned forward and immediately began rolling down Hanover Road.

“This is fun!” Mrs Evans exclaimed, “You should try it.”

Mrs Evans was demonstrating the Segway Human Transporter, a self-balancing people mover that was developed by inventor Dean Kamen, who has claimed his machine will transform the way people live and work as surely as the automobile did when it replaced the horse and buggy.

While her husband David watched, Mrs Evans leaned to one side, turned, and headed back toward the house where the Evans family has lived for the past 20 years. This week David and Betsy are moving to Estes Park, Colo., to begin a new stage in their lives.

“Our son Christopher works for Deka Research, which developed the Segway,” Mrs Evans said. “But he was on a different development team, the one that developed the iBOT, the revolutionary wheelchair that goes up and down stairs and can maneuver over sand and gravel.”

Because he worked for the company, Christopher was able to purchase a Segway with an employee discount. The transporter, powered by batteries and controlled by tilt-sensors and five solid-state gyroscopes, sells on Amazon.com and at Brookstone. It is also available on eBay.

“Amazon not only sells it, it also uses the Segway in its warehouses,” Mrs Evans said. “It is also used a lot in cities like Atlanta, where the postmen, the police, city officials, and guards at the airport all use them.”

Like most new technology, the price is already coming down.

“It originally sold for $5,000 but now you can find it for $3,900,” Dave Evans said. “Its great for my wife because she has arthritis and she will be able to use it a lot when we get to Colorado.”

Reportedly developed at a cost of more than $100 million, the Segway is a complex bundle of hardware and software that mimics the human body’s ability to maintain its balance. Not only does it have no brakes, but also no engine, no throttle, no gearshift, and no steering wheel.

“It moves in whatever way you lean your body,” Betsy Evans explained. “To go forward, you lean forward. To stop, you just lean back. Once you get on, you really can’t fall off. It’s a wonderful device.”

When you use a Segway, the gyroscope acts like your inner ear, the computer acts like your brain, the motors act like your muscles, and its wheels act like your feet, she said.

To increase the speed, you just lean further forward. But how fast you can go –– up to top speeds of more than 12 mph –– depends upon the upper speed limit set by a color-coded key when the vehicle is turned on.

“There’s a black key for beginners, and two others that allow higher speeds,” Mrs Evans said. “I still use the black key.”

The Evans family’s Segway weighs 83 pounds yet it is not difficult at all to maneuver, even when it has no rider. ‘There’s a power-assist mode that you can turn on when you are getting it out or putting it away,” Mr Evans said.

And, it can carry the average rider for a full day, nonstop, on about five cents’ worth of electricity.

Originally from New England, the Evans family lived in Boulder, Colo., for five years before moving to Newtown 20 years ago, where their children graduated from Newtown High School. Dave Evans is an engineer who designs scientific software. Betsy operated a retail store, The Common Thread, in Monroe and Newtown for 15 years and now sells her counted embroidery designs and tatting designs online at www.charteroakdesigns.com. She travels extensively throughout the United States to teach beginning and advanced needlework classes at schools and conferences.

“We have a house in Colorado, and have been renovating it,” Mrs Evans said. “Our daughter Judy Bennett and her family live in Boulder, so we will be near them. She’s a website designer who works at home. She and Adam have two children, Sidley, who is 4, and Vivian who is 19 months old.”

The Evans’ other son, Bill, 32, is a lieutenant in the US Navy stationed at Lemoore Naval Air Station in California where he is now training on the new two-seat F18 super hornet. He is married to Molly, a civil engineer.

“He’s been invited to go to Nevada next year to go to the Top Gun school,” Mrs Evans said. “We’re very proud of him but it is nerve-wracking for us because he has served in three wars –– the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq.”

Christopher, 34, lives in Amherst, N.H., with his wife, Leigh Ann, who like Judy Bennett is also a website designer who works at home. Chris and Leigh Ann have two daughters, Aislinn, 8, and Lindsay, 6. Chris also has what David Evans calls “a mechanical engineer’s dream assignment” working on new inventions like the iBOT, which received US approval on August 12 and now is being marketed and sold by Independence technology, a division of Johnson & Johnson.

Jean-Luc Butel, president of Independence Technology, said the iBOT’s $29,000 cost is not as high as some specialized wheelchairs on the market. Plus, the iBOT saves people from having to spend thousands of dollars modifying their homes with ramps, elevators, and other accommodations.

But for Christopher Evans, this design challenge is behind him and he is already hard at work on a new one.

“He’s working on a new assignment now, but it is a secret and he can’t tell us,” Betsy Evans said.

“Well, he could tell us, but then he’d have to kill us,” she added, laughing.