Global Wandering

I was sitting toward the back of the hall this morning in College Station, Texas where I was scheduled to make a presentation. A student in a wheel chair at the front of the room readied to give the invocation upon the start of the meeting (do all public meetings in Texas begin with prayer?). He sat up higher than usual, but my view was obscured by the podium so I didn't give it much thought.

A few minutes later, I took a closer looked and was amazed. The student was balanced on two wheels as if he had popped a permanent wheelie. After he gave his prayer, he lowered the chair back down on four wheels and drove off.

This chair apparently is the iBot 4000 and it employs a clever use of gyroscopes -one of the many scientific phenomena that is beyond my comprehension. The beauty of this chair is it allows its occupants to be at eye level when speaking to others. So much of our socializing is done while standing. Now individuals confined to wheel chairs can participate fully in those type of settings. Ingenious.