Segway and Nintendo Team Up on Wii Fit Plus Game
Live from Los Angeles, California we’re at the E3 Expo announcing an exciting collaboration with Nintendo. For more than a year now, Segway has been working with Nintendo to develop a module for the recently announced Wii Fit Plus game. The game is the next iteration of the widely popular initial release; Wii Fit, which comes with the balance board and is used to perform many exercises. The Segway experience module is one of several balance games that players can enjoy. It’s fun to play and is sure to bring a new version of that familiar Segway smile to everyone who gives it try.
Mii character rides a Segway x2 at the start of the game
Segway worked with Nintendo programmers to get the experience of riding a virtual Segway x2 in the game as close the actual experience as possible. Give it a try and you’ll see how much fun it is to master. To operate the virtual Segway x2, you stand on the balance board and lean forward to make your Mii character ride forward. To turn left and right, you lean a Wii remote left or right. A combination of this activity sends your Mii in any direction you wish to travel.
Mii character rides Segway x2 on the beach in chase of one of the balloons
The objective of the game is to pop balloons that appear across the terrain. As you do, you’ll get closer toward the goal of awaking a mole-like creature that pops up at the end and tries to run away from you. To help, you have a dog traveling with you that can be send ahead to stun him so that you can catch up and be victorious.
Mii character and dog head off on the hunt
The collaboration likely doesn’t come as a huge surprise for those who follow the technology in the Wii gaming console and peripherals such as the balance board. The Wii Remote, for example, contains small gyroscopes that sense angular momentum in a similar fashion to how a Segway PT’s platform senses when you shift your center of gravity forward or backward.
For Segway, the game is a fun extension of the brand experience. Everyone who has always been interested in giving a Segway x2 a try now has a fun new way to do so (albeit not quite the real thing). Wii Fit Plus is expected to be available in time for the holidays from Nintendo Authorized Resellers worldwide.
In addition, stay tuned to The Last Mile and @SegwayInc on Twitter for live updates from the announcement at the E3 Expo here in Los Angeles.
Say Hello to Your New Patrolling Partner
Today, we announced the availability of two new models specifically designed for smarter patrols. The Segway Patroller i2 and x2 models were developed using the direct input of existing customers by incorporating product enhancements to help officers around the world keep their communities safer.
The new models are easily identified by their highly reflective surfaces, an integrated lighting system, and a newly designed LeanSteer™ frame with front handlebar bag specifically designed to carry officer’s cargo. Check out the videos below for a close-up.
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With an increasing need for organizations to do more with less, the Segway PT offers police departments, military bases, private security firms and emergency response teams the ability to reconnect with the communities they serve, improve response time, and save on fuel and maintenance costs. More than 1,000 patrol public and private safety organizations can’t be wrong; they’ve all stepped up to the Segway PT for patrolling.
The Segway PT can be a major part of an organization or city’s efforts to curb fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. According to the California Energy Commission, an SUV that’s idling for two minutes consumers about the same amount of fuel as it would take to go one mile. Imagine taking that officer out of the gas guzzler and empowering him or her to interact more with passersby, even using it for outdoor patrols and indoor response calls, often responding faster than in a vehicle or on foot.
We encourage agencies to sign up for our Renewable Energy Credits (REC) program to offset the electricity used in one year to charge a Segway PT (approximately 200 kWh). We purchase credits on our customers’ behalf which directly support renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal power. Here’s a quick tutorial on how renewable credits work if you’re not familiar.
To learn more about the Segway Patroller for your organization, visit http://www.segway.com/patrol or contact us here.
Airport Paramedics Saddle Up on Segway PTs
EMS workers at Calgary International Airport have added another tool to their Emergency Response arsenal: Segway PTs. The EMS teams use the Segway PTs in their daily rounds, responding to a variety of calls, including everything from swine flu screenings to dislodging wedged ear buds. (Is anyone else as surprised as we were that ear buds were such a health issue at an airport?!?)
“We can maneuver fairly quickly through the crowd and as soon as we get there we can actually flip the Segway [PT] back and we have a platform to work off of,” said paramedic Marinus Onos. Check out the video, courtesy of CityTV Calgary here.
Segway PTs are frequently adopted by emergency response teams because of their maneuverability in crowded pedestrian environments, high visibility, and improved response time. With a top speed of 12.5mph/20kph, a Segway PT can arrive at an emergency situation 3-4 times faster than walking and reduces the responder’s fatigue so they are better able to perform their duties on-scene.
According to EMS spokesperson Adam Loria, the Segway PTs have been well received by the staff and the airport’s program could be expanded to include using Segway PTs at other locations.
Learn more about Segway PT implementation at airports around the world here.
Thanks to Segway Canada for their training and support of the installation.
Celebrating Earth Day, Every Day.
Earth Day is here again and as we pondered what it is that we wanted to do this year, we decided to do what we do every day. This is no different than what we did last year and probably will do next year. It’s keeping a hard line on focusing our efforts on making products available to you that can help eliminate unnecessary car trips and enable you to do more with less.
Earth Day takes on its own personal meaning for each of us. For one, it might conjure memories of neighborhood springtime clean-ups. For others, it might mean sacrificing consumption habits for the benefit of the environment. The best thing it does is cause us to pause and think about what our impact is on the world.
A lot has changed since last year. For the U.S., there’s new leadership that could mean a renewed focus on the environment. Auto companies around the world are refocusing their efforts to serve the needs of increasingly congested urban environments.
All that change aside, what has never been more clear is the pay-off for consistency. Being able to alter a course as early as possible to encourage a savings of some sort can have a sizable long-term pay-off. At home, it can mean reminding kids about the importance of recycling, turning off lights when not in use, and keeping thermostats moderate during the extreme months. It adds up and it all makes a difference.
For our customers, such as security personnel, it could mean eliminating idling SUVs and replacing with a Segway PT that’s zero emissions during operation. Sure, it takes some greenhouse gases to get a Segway PT’s batteries the electrons it needs to propel that security officer around, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the SUV that for every two minutes of idling consumes about the same amount of fuel as it would take to go one mile.*
For our individual consumer customers, it can mean abandoning combustion car trips that might normally be taken as a single passenger (the aggregate of which result in significant greenhouse gas production).
If you didn’t know (this is especially important if you’re one of our customers), Segway Inc. has a renewable energy credits (REC) program that’s designed to encourage the proliferation and use of clean energy. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do so at www.segway.com/green. By our purchasing these credits, it requires the use of clean energy for the equivalent of a year’s worth of heavily charging a Segway PT for each customer who has signed up.
Our most recent purchase of RECs, which is though the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, resulted in support for wind and solar projects in North Dakota, California, and Washington. Even if you’re not from the United States, you’re still able to participate and support these programs. We’ve also worked with some of our larger customers such as Target to understand their specific usage patterns and purchase the equivalent credits on their behalf.
Our efforts don’t stop there, however. The physical version of our product catalogue is printed on mixed sources, a paper product group from well-managed forests, controlled sources and recycled wood or fiber. It’s 50% recycled, 25% post consumer fiber FSC certified.
Something a little out of the ordinary we do is keep our Web site green. With the help of www.co2stats.com, we help off-set the energy required to serve up the very page you’re viewing right now. It’s relatively small, but think about all the refrigeration required to keep servers cool enough – even during surges of traffic like what we experienced on the 7th with the Project P.U.M.A. announcement.
Over on Segway Social, active users who have reported a purchase date of a Segway PT and average weekly miles have logged a whopping 1.17 million miles! Extrapolate the averages to the total number of owners on Segway Social and that number quickly climbs to 2.3 million miles. If they had taken that in the average American car, that would have been about 1,311 tons of carbon equivalent gas emitted into the atmosphere.
And yes, Project P.U.M.A. continues to progress along. We thank you for the nearly half million video views and all the feedback that it has generated. Just today, in fact, we were pleased to have a visit from Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter at our facility to be one of the few to get a test ride.
Between what we’re saying above and all the other messages you’re likely getting from other companies this week to be green, we’ll just end by kindly reminding you to take it all in stride. Being green this Earth Day is more about establishing a mentality than it is about using a travel mug. We’re not stopping with the Segway PT as the end-all-be-all of alternative transportation and we hope that you continue to join us for the ride right here on The Last Mile.
We’ll be hosting some fun little Earth Day polls on Twitter over the next day or so. Please participate if you can.
*California Energy Commission
Project P.U.M.A. at The NY Auto Show
The Project P.U.M.A. prototype is on display at the New York International Auto Show after its big reveal last Tuesday. Leading up to Friday’s public opening, press days kept our team very busy, as many media folks stopped by to see what the buzz was about.
The Project P.U.M.A. area in the Chevy booth (#1305, level one) proved to be one of most popular areas of the show. Derek Hugger, a product designer here at Segway Inc., drove circles around the designated area showing the capabilities of the prototype.
You can visit the P.U.M.A. prototype at the NY Auto Show until April 19th. Be sure to stop by and check it out!
If you can’t make it to the show, visit http://www.segway.com/puma for more info.
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