Friday January 12 5:18 PM ET Secret Invention 'Ginger' May Be Motorized Scooter

By Eric Auchard and Tim Castle

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - The mystery invention code-named ''Ginger'' that has set the technology world abuzz may be little more than a motorized miniscooter, judging from a recent patent application that came to light on Friday.

A Dec. 14, 2000, filing with the World Intellectual Property Organization available on the Internet at http://www.wipo.org describes a ``class of transportation vehicles for carrying an individual over ground ... that is unstable with respect to tipping when ... not powered.''

A picture of this ``personal mobility vehicle'' shows what appears to be a young girl balanced on a two-wheeled scooter. The patent application fits descriptions made in broadcast reports by people claiming to have seen prototypes of the vehicle.

A proposal for a planned book about the mysterious invention described it as possibly more important than the World Wide Web and capable of generating fantastic riches, exciting a wave of media speculation over the machine.

Harvard Business School Press is said to have paid $250,000 for the book detailing the device, also referred to as ``IT,'' which is set to be unveiled in 2002 by millionaire inventor Dean Kamen. Kamen's previous inventions include a portable insulin pump and a wheelchair that climbs stairs.

A spokeswoman for the publisher declined to comment on Friday.

Called Easy To Assemble

The invention is said to take just 10 minutes to assemble using simple tools, according to details from the book proposal published by media industry watchers Inside.com. Each Ginger object could cost less than $2,000. Top computer industry figures and investment bankers were named as backers, Inside.com said.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Kamen, 49, declined to reveal much about the device, saying, ``While our projects are in the development phase and have client confidentiality requirements, it is impossible for us to comment further.''

Calls to Kamen and his company, DEKA Research of Manchester, New Hampshire, seeking comment on the patent application were not returned.

After seeing a prototype, Jeff Bezos, the founder of online retailer Amazon.com (news - web sites), was quoted as saying that IT ``is a product so revolutionary you'll have no problem selling it. The question is, are people going to be allowed to use it?''

A scooter like one described in Kamen's recent application might piggyback on the popularity of Razor, the manually powered scooter that became a hit with American youth over the past year. More than 5 million of the devices have been sold, inspiring a host of imitators, Razor USA LLC said in December.

Netizens Speculate

Ginger was the subject of an hourlong U.S. talk show on CNN. On the Internet, debate raged over what the device might be, with opinions raging from enthusiastic to sarcastic to bombastic.

Some questioned if the device was not, in fact, a personal Hovercraft, with the patent meant to throw the public off the real scent. Others argued it was an updated version of Kamen's wheelchairs or a sophisticated can opener or a clothes iron.

``So what! This is all hype to sell a book,'' one skeptic said on an online message board. ``You people in the media need to be a little more skeptical. If it's so great, why does it have to be a secret?''

Revolutionary personal transport systems have been revealed to an expectant, and disbelieving, world before.

In January 1985 British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair unveiled his three-wheeler C5, a kind of surfboard tricycle in which plucky drivers lay on their backs and navigated the roads feet first.

Powered by battery and pedaling, the low-level vehicle was invisible to trucks. It was immediately condemned by Britain's Automobile Association as ``a hazard to the occupant and other road users.''

Sales were minimal and production stopped within months. Sinclair's reputation as the distinguished inventor of cheap calculators and computers was in tatters, his C5 a national joke.

A satirical song occasioned by the invention of the C5 contains the line ``Don't want a Jag, don't want a Merc, I want to look like an absolute berk (idiot).

-- buddy (buddy@aol.com), January 13, 2001