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 ..."
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.
The disabled person ultimately gets to decide how to spend their own insurance money on assistive devices, but doesn't always have the full perspective on the impact on their friends, or family, or possibilities of workplace or housing, that can change with one device or another. Plus, they're frequently old or have a cognitive/learning disability or some other thing that makes them staid in their ways, and makes their caretakers wary of change.
I think this video is aimed at reaching out to the people around the disabled person who might currently be adapting their lifestyle to suit the requirements of the disabled's present assistive device, and could be convinced to advocate to the disabled person based on the increased autonomy/decreased dependence it would lend them.
That is probably to make clear that this is not a Wall-E device or a bicycle replacement. Even with that clear language, multiple people here did not get that.
I thought the same thing. I wanted to send a link to my father, who suffers from post-polio syndrome and could benefit from an innovation like this, but I'm concerned the tone would offend him.
Also, when he says "a disabled" is quite cringeworthy. You're supposed to say "person with disabilities" because it's not a "label", just a description of a normal person who happens to have different transportation needs.
> (have you ever tried the joystick control on an electric wheelchair?)
I have, and they suck. But the main reason they suck is because they've been neutered so they're useable for a wider range of people.
Many people who use electric wheelchairs also have problems with fine motor control, seizures, etc. so the joystick has a lot of filtering with associated slow response and staggered acceleration.
I know people in wheelchairs who otherwise had no problems with fine motor skills that had electronically-minded friends help them to upgrade the chairs and replace the control unit. Those wheelchairs go fast after some modding.
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).
It does avoid bearing the medical equipment tag, the old tech metal cruft, disabled .. none of that comes to mind when I saw the video. It might help everybody forget about the condition and start acting normal again.
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.
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.
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?
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
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).
It's a sit on Segway, seems it would fit the same niche too? From what I've seen of Segway's that niche is kinda "novelty solo recreational vehicle".
One thing here is speed.
UK Highway Code says "Powered wheelchairs and scooters MUST NOT travel faster than 4 mph (6 km/h) on pavements or in pedestrian areas." [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-users... - "must not" IIRC means it's illegal with reference to UK legislation].
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.
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.
> One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it would be extremely dangerous
You're right. However, I suspect there are a lot of people who want this precisely because it's an electric wheelchair that's not been designed for the lowest common denominator.
Most of the electric wheelchairs seem to want their target market to be "all disabled people". This means you have to limit the speed, agility, control sensitivity, etc. so even people with (say) Cerebral Palsy can control them without putting them in danger.
There is a market for disabled people with full arm control and no proclivity for seizures who just want a fast, efficient way to get around. Right now I think the most popular way is to buy an electric wheelchair and mod it, but there's probably a market there for an off-the-shelf solution.
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.
I noticed two support wheels in the rear. I suspect it might be there to keep the occupant from hurting himself if he fall backward due to a situation like the one you described.
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.
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 :)
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.
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
[+] [-] DavidSJ|10 years ago|reply
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|10 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] derefr|10 years ago|reply
I think this video is aimed at reaching out to the people around the disabled person who might currently be adapting their lifestyle to suit the requirements of the disabled's present assistive device, and could be convinced to advocate to the disabled person based on the increased autonomy/decreased dependence it would lend them.
[+] [-] chronial|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] piker|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] odbol|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulsutter|10 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] throwaway7767|10 years ago|reply
I have, and they suck. But the main reason they suck is because they've been neutered so they're useable for a wider range of people.
Many people who use electric wheelchairs also have problems with fine motor control, seizures, etc. so the joystick has a lot of filtering with associated slow response and staggered acceleration.
I know people in wheelchairs who otherwise had no problems with fine motor skills that had electronically-minded friends help them to upgrade the chairs and replace the control unit. Those wheelchairs go fast after some modding.
[+] [-] scribu|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TeMPOraL|10 years ago|reply
That's an curious association - I assume this is because only mall cops (and tourists) tend to use it nowadays? :).
[+] [-] agumonkey|10 years ago|reply
It feels slightly unsafe though, just a bit.
[+] [-] ThomPete|10 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] listic|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] triangleman|10 years ago|reply
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/
[+] [-] netcan|10 years ago|reply
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|10 years ago|reply
> 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...
[+] [-] nsxwolf|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zyxley|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pbhjpbhj|10 years ago|reply
One thing here is speed.
UK Highway Code says "Powered wheelchairs and scooters MUST NOT travel faster than 4 mph (6 km/h) on pavements or in pedestrian areas." [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-users... - "must not" IIRC means it's illegal with reference to UK legislation].
[+] [-] dfan|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ams6110|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JulianMorrison|10 years ago|reply
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|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JulianMorrison|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway7767|10 years ago|reply
You're right. However, I suspect there are a lot of people who want this precisely because it's an electric wheelchair that's not been designed for the lowest common denominator.
Most of the electric wheelchairs seem to want their target market to be "all disabled people". This means you have to limit the speed, agility, control sensitivity, etc. so even people with (say) Cerebral Palsy can control them without putting them in danger.
There is a market for disabled people with full arm control and no proclivity for seizures who just want a fast, efficient way to get around. Right now I think the most popular way is to buy an electric wheelchair and mod it, but there's probably a market there for an off-the-shelf solution.
[+] [-] bpodgursky|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cuchoi|10 years ago|reply
Independent of the answer I feel that this can also be applied with any human beings (with disabilities or not) and cars.
[+] [-] mfoy_|10 years ago|reply
I don't think it's meant to be a one-size-fits-all wheelchair.
[+] [-] ryanlol|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lazyjones|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hliyan|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bentpins|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orkoden|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rco8786|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] khill|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tajen|10 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] bluedino|10 years ago|reply
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|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oakhaven|10 years ago|reply
Also, is this how New Zealand accent sounds like?
[+] [-] timlyo|10 years ago|reply
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ogo-two-wheeled-wheel...
[+] [-] esseti|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] syllogism|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meigwilym|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agentgt|10 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] visarga|10 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] BillShakespeare|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notahacker|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AliAdams|10 years ago|reply
Imagine dropping something and instinctively leaning over to catch / retrieve it.
[+] [-] london888|10 years ago|reply