Honda has come up with a unicycle called the U3-X. The device is intended to aid elderly people to be more mobile.

The device has an omin-directional driving system that integrates a large wheel that moves forward and backward, and smaller wheels that move from side to side. The wheels can even produce diagonal movement.

The U3-X weighs 22 pounds, and operates for an hour on a single charge to the lithium-ion batteries.

In the video it appears that the seat is too small, combined with tiny foot pedals, makes the U3-X very uncomfortable to ride, as opposed to the Segway which allows for a standing position.

The commercial success of the U3-X seems unlikely, much as it has been for the Segway, but eventually these device concepts should lead to something far more useful.

In the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace, a villain tries to take control of fresh water around the world. It turns out that is a very real threat.

Don’t worry though, back in March 2008, Dean Kamen, the founder of DEKA research, who invented the Segway, announced his new invention he calls Slingshot (See video below). The Slingshot uses no filters, but rather purifies water using vapor compression distillation. Kamen says he company plans to put the machines into production, and if they are used around the world they can eliminate 50% of human disease which is caused by water born pathogens. The Slingshot will cost between $1,000 to $2,000.

• It is designed to supply a village with 1,000 liters/day of clean water.
• You can use any water source, ocean, puddle, chemical waste site, hexavalent chrome, arsenic, poison, 50 gallon drum of urine.
• Vapor compression distillation is not new. Doing it in such an incredibly efficient way such that it takes only 2 percent of the power of convention distillers is new.
• The are no filters to replace, no charcoal, no anything disposable (just distillation).
• The Slingshot (as its called) can use half the waste heat (450 watts) from a sterling engine electrical generator (prototype also being designed by Kamen’s company) to boil its water.
• The heat put into the water is recovered with a "counter-flow heat exchanger" and recycled to heat the next batch of water (that is part of the novel bit).
• Slingshot will be less then 60 lbs.
• The prototype slingshot was hand-built for $100K. The goal is to get production units down to $1,000 to $2,000.
• The sterling engine, used as an electrical generator, can produce about 200 watts of power (it will never be more then 20 percent efficient) and 800 watts of waste heat (the waste heat that slingshot uses).
• Later sources say the sterling engine can generate 1 kilowatt or enough power for 70 high-efficiency light bulbs.
• The sterling engine can run on anything that burns, propane or even cow dung.
• The slingshot is a David and Goliath reference aimed at putting water and power back in the hands of the individuals.

What would happen if the Segway and the roaming circus hada baby? This beautiful, beautiful monstrosity.

The Focus Designs SBU works in a similar way to it’s bizarre cousin. Gyroscopes sense minor variations in body shift and adjust direction accordingly. The SBU may, however, be even more dorky than the ubiquitous Segway. They are set to be $1,50 so Mark Wahlberg, start saving now.

When will they admit that the Segway is just plain dumb? We keep getting hit with these stupid employments of this useless transport. Witness Segway Polo. ‘Nuff said.

Reminiscent of the bomb shelters people built in their back yards in the 50s, another version of Gloom & Doom from Suzuki in the form of this encapsulated Segway birthed from its mothership, to protect us from the toxins produced through pollution (or are they trying to get rid of those lemons?).