It's Segway or the highway

Gliding up the ramp into Jordan Hall, Physiology Professor Henry Prange looks as if he's riding on a white scooter that's been compacted into a boxy platform outfitted with overgrown wheels. \nBut this "scooter" doesn't rely on self-propulsion. \nInstead, when Prange leans forward, the multiple sensors under his feet interpret his movement as a "go" command, and off he slides. To go backward, Prange simply leans to the rear, and back he goes. He can do it holding a coffee cup, a heavy book or even hands-free because this motorized scooter is the most high-tech personal transportation device on the market today: a self-balancing Segway Human Transporter. \nThe Segway is perfect for Prange, who considers himself a "gadget nut." Additionally, he owns four global positioning devices -- one for his car, two for his boat and one for his wrist -- a set of night goggles and a pair of image-stabilizing binoculars; not to mention a collection of calculators, slide rulers and sterling engines. \nSo when he threw down a cool $5,000 on a Segway HT, he was sure it would just be another gizmo he'd tinker with for a while and then end up storing in the garage. After all, with five gyroscopes allowing it to balance against a rider, tiny, yet extremely high-powered motors and a gearbox with meshes calibrated to be exactly two musical octaves apart, a Segway is a gadget nut's paradise -- it's almost a tiny human brain.\nAnd instead of tinkering with it and then storing it, Prange has only grown in his enthusiasm about his Segway, which he's now owned for nearly a year. \n"It's just one of those rare, really fun things," Prange said. "It's a sensible person's motorcycle."\nAs for the price, Prange laughs it off as one of the only investments he's ever made that has been worth every penny. \n"Only people who are crazy like me and a gadget nut can buy one," said Prange. "I ride with a grin on my face."\nThough the Segway has been on the market for nearly three years now since its invention by Dean Kamen, who also invented a wheelchair that can climb stairs and raise the user to height-level, Prange is currently only one of two people in Bloomington who owns one, and he holds the title as the first owner in Bloomington. \nThe other owner, a local high-school student, bought his to help him move around, as he lives with cerebral palsy. Prange, who let the student test-drive his machine before he purchased one, said the purchase of a Segway has completely changed the student's life. \n"It's just liberated him, and from what I hear, it's a liberation in the real sense," Prange said.\nThough he doesn't rely strictly on the Segway for his transportation needs, Prange mainly enjoys riding it to work. Living within four miles of his Jordan Hall office and lab, it generally takes Prange about half-hour to ride in on the Segway, which has a top speed of 12 miles per hour. At this point, he's clocked close to 500 miles on it.\nHaving a machine like the Segway has given Prange a new appreciation for the wide-turn sidewalks and ramps in the community put in place for individuals in wheelchairs, as he also benefits from these installations. And like others riding bikes or skateboards or using a wheelchair, Prange knows every bump and rough spot of the pathways he uses. \n"You can definitely get jolted by bumps," Prange said. "I've never fallen, but I've been on one foot once."\nAnd Prange scoffs in response to those who look to the Segway as just another way Americans can get lazier about even walking down the street. He has to remain alert while driving the Segway, looking out for bumps and obstacles, though he doesn't break a sweat doing it. Plus, he enjoys seeing the spring flowers and sights without feeling tired or in need of a shower when he rolls up to his office.\n"(People are) saying I'm lazy as they drive by in their SUVs," Prange said.\nBut more often, the response is positive. Students often give Prange a big thumbs-up as he glides down Third Street, and he's constantly bombarded with questions like, "How much is that?" or "Where can I get one?"\nIn his own lab, the sight of Prange rolling up on the Segway is common. Most everyone on his floor has had a chance to admire or test out the Segway for themselves. Last week, senior Rory Randolph, an undergraduate member of Prange's physiology lab, got to take his first spin on the Segway. And after some initial adjustments, like rocking back and forth as he got a feel for balancing on the Segway, Randolph was soon gliding up and down the hallway. Though he was enthused about the test run, he knows a Segway is slightly out of his price range. \nFellow lab member and graduate student Noah Marshall joked about the high-priced machine. \n"Maybe we can work that into our next grant," Marshall said dryly.\nMarshall, along with Randolph and graduate student Jill Menge, recently sat in Prange's third floor lab holding white lab rats in their hands to ready them for experiments involving human contact. Prange was studying oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood of the rats as he described his high interest in physiology as similar to his love of machines like the Segway.\n"Being a physiologist means I'm a tinkerer," Prange said. "I get to find out how animals work. Animals are just like gadgets."\nAnd with the Segway, among his other toys, collections and research, Prange has no shortage of items with which to tinker and enjoy for years.\n"The concept of a self-balancing machine is simple," Prange said, his eyes brightening again as he talks about the complexities of his Segway. "But the execution requires so much more. And there are few things that interest me more than seeing how a complicated machine works."\n-- Contact Weekend editor Kelly Phillips at kephilli@indiana.edu.