He invented the ELECTRIC UNICYCLE

[eucVibes]

Eric Chen is an innovative inventor and entrepreneur known for revolutionizing personal transportation with his creation of the electric unicycle. Born and raised in [place], Chen displayed a keen interest in engineering and technology from a young age. His fascination with mobility solutions led him to explore various modes of transportation, eventually sparking the idea for the electric unicycle.

 

Driven by a passion for sustainability and efficiency, Chen embarked on a mission to design a compact, eco-friendly, and convenient mode of personal transport. Drawing upon his expertise in mechanical engineering and a deep understanding of battery technology, he tirelessly experimented and refined his prototypes, overcoming numerous challenges along the way.

 

Chen's breakthrough came with the development of a self-balancing electric unicycle equipped with gyroscopic sensors and intuitive controls. This innovative design not only provided users with a seamless riding experience but also addressed concerns of portability and eco-conscious commuting.

 

Upon unveiling his creation, the electric unicycle gained widespread attention for its futuristic design and practicality. Chen's dedication to enhancing mobility solutions earned him recognition in the tech industry, and his invention significantly influenced the landscape of personal transportation.

 

Beyond his entrepreneurial pursuits, Chen remains committed to advancing sustainable mobility and continues to explore new innovations in the field. His work serves as an inspiration for aspiring inventors and underscores the potential of technology in reshaping the way we navigate the world.

[Brendan "nog3" Halliday]

You do realise his name is Shane Chen, not Eric Chen right?

Guy's had all of his inventions copied and now he can't even get attributed correctly.

[rcgldr]

He invented the seatless electric unicycle. Trevor Blackwell made an electric unicycle with a seat back in 2004.

link to wiki image

[Scubadragonsan]

I think the credit definitely goes to Shane Chen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Chen who really has put it altogether and commercialized it compared to Trevor Blackwell who "In 2003, Bombardier announced a conceptual design for such a device used as a sport vehicle, the Embrio.^[9] In September 2004 Trevor Blackwell demonstrated a functional self-balancing unicycle, using a control-mechanism similar to that used by the Segway PT and published the designs as the Eunicycle, but it was never "finalized" for public use passing the necessary requirements.

[rcgldr]

On 1/2/2024 at 8:29 AM, Scubadragonsan said:

In September 2004 Trevor Blackwell demonstrated a functional self-balancing unicycle, using a control-mechanism similar to that used by the Segway PT and published the designs as the Eunicycle, but it was never "finalized" for public use passing the necessary requirements.

The Eunicycle led to FocusDesigns (Daniel Wood )SBU series (SBU, SBU2, SBU3), which were finalized and publicly sold. Adam Savage on the original chain driven SBU before the switch to a hub motor:

 Video of Trevor riding one of the hub motor SBUs, with a lower seat and pedals. At 3:55 into the video, some of the riders are standing, using the seat more like the upper pads on a seatless electric unicycle: Looks like the riders were able to quickly learn to ride on the SBUs, and I wonder if these would make a good way to learn how to ride seatless EUCs, maybe with longer pedals like seatless EUCs.

 

Edited April 23 by rcgldr

[rcgldr]

On 1/2/2024 at 8:29 AM, Scubadragonsan said:

I think the credit definitely goes to Shane Chen

What Shane Chen did was to switch from foot pegs to foot pedals, which allowed a rider to exert a forwards | backwards torque on an EUC without a seat, and  the lack of a seat allowed for much more left | right tilt angle.

Edited January 4 by rcgldr

[Parker Noodles]

There is an IEEE paper from 1990 about building a self balancing unicycle, granted it was riderless, but I still think that the people behind that paper deserve credit as well. (No clue if anyone mentioned here ever saw the paper though.)

Here is the link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/203573

[Mono]

On 1/2/2024 at 10:48 PM, rcgldr said:

What Shane Chen did was to switch from foot pegs to foot pedals, which allowed a rider to exert a forwards | backwards torque on an EUC without a seat, and  the lack of a seat allowed for much more tilt angle.

Removing the seat was kinda genius because of its simplicity, but at this point in time, with 500 Watt motors, lack of tilt angle was probably no issue at all. The long seat makes it actually easier to apply torque to the wheel compared to the pedals because the seat has a much longer lever. A possible technique to accelerate with a long seat would be similar to the one often used with power pads: by bending the upper body forward. For emergency braking one would slip behind the seat and pull.

[rcgldr]

4 hours ago, Mono said:

Removing the seat was kinda genius because of its simplicity

Shane Chen had already done a similar thing when creating the hoverboard, removing the handle from a Segway. However, early hoverboards weren't truly self-balancing like most of the current ones.  I'm an old guy and l had a small dicycle back in the 1960s, which is like a manually powered hoverboard: two parallel 10 inch wheels solidly connected to a bent axis. The only bearings were in the pedals on the bent axis. It wasn't that difficult to balance. Turning required twisting and lifting one wheel up. I haven't been able to find an image of one. I don't know if Shane Chen was aware of these small dicycles, as they weren't that popular, but as mentioned, they are essentially manual hoverboards. Large dicycles with seats go back to the 1880s. 

Going back to the late 1940s - early 1950's, the first skateboards were crate (used for handlebars) scooters with the crate removed. Just a board and roller skate wheel trucks. So the concept was the same, remove the handlebars from scooter and you get a skateboard. It is also turned by tilting it left | right.

4 hours ago, Mono said:

with 500 Watt motors, lack of tilt angle was probably no issue at all.

Lost an edit, fixed now. It's the left | right tilt angle that became greater once the seat was removed, allowing for better turning.

I could also ride a cable spool, which was easier to ride than my small dicycle. I did find a video of this.

 

Edited January 4 by rcgldr

[Mono]

11 hours ago, rcgldr said:

Lost an edit, fixed now. It's the left | right tilt angle that became greater once the seat was removed, allowing for better turning.

Right, I see. Interestingly, from the above vids I gathered that it's probably easier to learn riding the seated SBU than a modern EUC. That is, the left/right tilt is apparently not necessary for learning how to balance quickly. That's not surprising to me, as I didn't consider tilting as a reliable method for balancing at low or moderate speed anyways.

Edited January 4 by Mono

[Scubadragonsan]

That thing the guy is walking on in the video, isn't that a heavy cable winder??? That winder doesn't need balancing, The guy walking on it needs to balance himself. I don't see how it is directly related to EUCs. If it is conceptually related, we can go back to a guy balancing on a soccer ball or any ball.

[rcgldr]

7 hours ago, Mono said:

Right, I see. Interestingly, from the above vids I gathered that it's probably easier to learn riding the seated SBU than a modern EUC. That is, the left/right tilt is apparently not necessary for learning how to balance quickly. That's not surprising to me, as I didn't consider tilting as a reliable method for balancing at low or moderate speed anyways.

SBU with seat: advantage: most of the rider's weight is on the seat, stepping on and off is easier; disadvantage: left | right tilt is limited, so steering is almost all done by twisting the SBU. As seen in the videos, riders use extended arms for balance and to twist the EUC, similar to beginners on a manual unicycle, flail arms left to twist EUC right and vice versa for balance and direction. At moderate speeds (around 8 mph in the case of my V8F, around 5 mph in the case of a Z10), an EUC will become self-balancing left | right, and the rider can essentially stand still while riding in a straight line. At very low speeds, tilting can be used along with extended arms for balance:

 

Edited January 4 by rcgldr

[rcgldr]

3 hours ago, Scubadragonsan said:

That thing the guy is walking on in the video, isn't that a heavy cable winder??? That winder doesn't need balancing, The guy walking on it needs to balance himself.

Yes, but that was the closest example of a manual hoverboard (dicycle with 10 inch tires) I had back in the 1960's. The rider had to balance it. The point is my manual hoverboard had no handle or third wheel. I don't know if these examples (manual hoverboard, cable spool) led to the idea of removing the handle from a Segway and reducing the size to make a hoverboard.

[Jason McNeil]

FWIW, back on June 6th 2015
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElectricUnicycle/posts/826255030805795

My Letter to the LA Times Journalist & Background of Inventist's Claim to Solowheel Inventorship:

Dear Jonathan,

I have had previous dealings with the Simeray brothers who now reside in Shenzhen, China. While your investigative report highlights the systemic deficiencies of enforcing intellectual property rights in the PRC, there is no mention about the original patent holders.

 

Quoting the line about simple truths, 'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.', which certainly applies here. It was back in September 2005, that the Simeray brothers (Janick & Marc) first had the brain-child that neither a seat nor a guiding handle—that appeared in the Dean Kamen Segway patent—were necessary for the operation of a self-balancing electric wheel. They patented the concept with the French patent office the same year & the USPTO a year later. The Simeray are professional inventors, whose primary claim to the fame is the levitating platform (link below), & have also been involved in many other inventions that have found their way into the toy industry.

 

Their intention in patenting the Electric Wheel was to develop it into a viable commercial product, not, as is often the case today, a vehicle for extracting royalties. Before a change in circumstances required that they switch to other projects, they had invested a considerable amount of capital & over 2000hrs labour in the development of their prototype.

 

In late 2010, they recommenced work on their invention & in February 2011 first encountered Shane Chen at the New York Toy Fair. By coincidence, it was at that event that Shane first unveiled his Solowheel. The Simerays confronted Shane about their patent rights & within a couple weeks Shane readily entered into a licensing agreement, which explicitly acknowledged the Simerays primacy to first-to-invent. There is evidence to show that Shane was familiar with the Simerays work before the encounter—Janick Simeray claims that when he first introduced himself to Shane, Shane was fully aware of who he was & his work.

 

Within two weeks of that first encounter, Shane Chen filed his own USPTO patent in an attempt to undermine the Simeray's on a technicality relating to a optional leg extrusion for securing the rider during acceleration/deceleration. The USPTO filing system permits anyone to view the correspondence between the patent attorney & the patent examiner. Reviewing the dialogue between the Patent Examiner & Mr. Chen's patent attorney, it's readily apparent that the Examiner was not impressed by Mr. Chen's application, rejecting 17 out of the 20 claims, on three successive submissions, on the grounds that the design 'would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made'. They have recently started working with a specialist US Patent Attorney who believes there is a very strong case to be made for overturning the tenuous foundations used to support the Shane Chen patent.

 

The full extent of the Solowheel story is even more mired in controversy & questionably legal activities than is represented in the above. The first Solowheel prototype was in fact developed by another company, Focus Designs, who has hitherto [undeservedly] taken a back seat in the publicity campaign of the Electric Wheel genesis. It was not until the middle of last year that this inconvenient fact was been released by Focus designs. To what moral authority, or legal right, do Inventist, then, have to claim that other manufacturers owe them royalty payments? It is my belief, that to any unbiased investigator of this saga, there is a clear victim, & it is certainly not Shane Chen.

http://focusdesigns.com/about/

[Jason McNeil]

And:

The US Patent we negotiated a license for is US8616313: it is the first with the novelty claims of being an Electric propelled unicycle, with foldable pedals, a narrow tire, & describes the control-system—in short it most closely resembles the Electric Unicycle as it's known today. 

This patent has an interesting & colourful history. Shane Chen of Solowheel had also signed a license agreement with Simeray (see attachment 'Simeray-Inventist License') which was contingent on it passing the USPTO before making royalty payments. It was learned shortly thereafter, that Shane immediately filed his own Electric Unicycle patent on the basis of the inclusion of 'friction leg pads', after several failed attempts (the patent examiner rejected Shane's novelty claims), he managed to get it passed. However, his (Shane's) is still dependent on Simeray's prior art, & as recently as March 2014, we have Shane on written record pleading for the 'exclusive patent' rights—obviously at this stage Simeray reject these overtures. An illustration of this history is outlined below: 

 

[Jason McNeil]

As is evidenced in this Skype communication thread between Shane Chen & Janick Simeray, dating back to 2011, while they were in license negotiations over the Solowheel, he (Janick) mentioned the idea of the handless Segway (e.g. Hoverboard) & his attempt to patent it. 

 

The evidence from this exchange makes it quite clear where the genesis of the concept came from. At any time has Shane ever publicly acknowledged the Simerays contribution to either invention?  

 

Infelicities of grammar & punctuation remain in tact....  
[01/03/2011 03:53:47]

JS:I have also filled a platform segway with no arm;    but a chinese unversity has done it and I did not push the patent

[01/03/2011 03:55:20] SC: Do you have a picture or drawing for it?
[01/03/2011 03:56:48] JS: I find this just after I find the solution for the supression of the arm
[01/03/2011 03:55:48] ***  *** [sent an artist's conception of the product, below

[01/03/2011 03:56:48] JS: I find this just after I find the solution for the supression of the arm
[01/03/2011 03:57:38] SC: How does it turn?
[01/03/2011 03:58:02] SC: Pressure?
[01/03/2011 03:58:51] JS: In my application;  I was put pressure sensors on right and left;  and a slave system controlling right speed with left pressure and opposite
[01/03/2011 03:58:55] JS: like in ski
[01/03/2011 03:59:08] JS: I think they have made the same
[01/03/2011 03:59:42] JS: right speed with left pressure
[01/03/2011 04:01:04] SC: I am going home now. I'll talk to you later.
[01/03/2011 04:01:33] JS: The pressure sensor were foam charged with carbon
[01/03/2011 04:01:46] JS: OK   waiting for your draft
[01/03/2011 04:01:58] SC: Bye
[01/03/2011 04:02:07] JS: my conclusion is it is more conveninent to solve the problems of the wheel
[01/03/2011 04:02:14] JS: this is the future
[01/03/2011 04:02:36] SC: Right
[01/03/2011 04:02:55] JS: every child spend 2 days to learn bicycle
[01/03/2011 04:03:02] JS: or more
[01/03/2011 04:03:23] JS: a teenager can spend half a day to learn the wheel
[01/03/2011 04:03:43] JS: try an adult that never made bycicle;    he will need time also
[01/03/2011 04:04:07] JS: the key point is not the learning time
[01/03/2011 04:04:30] SC: It's about 15 to 30 minutes to learn
[01/03/2011 04:04:48] JS: it is the fact it can be carries in the teain and in the metro   like a laptop
[01/03/2011 04:05:05] JS: if 4 to 5 kg
[01/03/2011 04:05:31] JS: this is not a leisure item;    in the futur  it is a way of life
[01/03/2011 04:05:49] JS: it is the reason I will push us with marketing
[01/03/2011 04:06:08] JS: and I introduce my friend David to the technology
[01/03/2011 04:06:39] JS: He is in contact with holliwood;    he already deal avatar charchter for me
[01/03/2011 04:07:19] JS: I want to give him one that he can demonstarte to one of the best movie maker;   in order it is in the next anticipation movie
[01/03/2011 04:07:41] JS: this will give us the opportunity to finance the 2
[01/03/2011 04:07:53] SC: Good, I have to go now.
[01/03/2011 04:07:59] JS: OK
[01/03/2011 04:08:13] SC: It was nice chating with you
[01/03/2011 04:08:21] SC: Bye

 

[novazeus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen

[null]

This thread covers some of the early patents.
This one from 1977 even have adjustable pedal height.

 

 

[Mono]

Klaus Hofer presented a self-balancing electric unicycle without a seat but with handlebar and a wide tire in 2001 to the press, see https://web.archive.org/web/20051216170524/http://fhznet.fh-bielefeld.de/fb2/labor-le/le3einrad.html

Justin Lemire-Elmore rode a seated self-balancing electric unicycle (which could also be pedalled) on camera in June 2006 (uploaded December 2011).

Ben Smither rode a self-balancing single wheel skateboard, AKA Onewheel, on camera in March 2007

Justin Lemire-Elmore claims he build a self-balancing BC wheel (no seat, no handlebar) in 2010, claim and wheel are shown here (it sounds believable to me):

A self-balancing electric unicycle without seat but with handlebar from April 2010

.

Edited January 5 by Mono

[Mono]

5 hours ago, rcgldr said:

At moderate speeds (around 8 mph in the case of my V8F, around 5 mph in the case of a Z10), an EUC will become self-balancing left | right, and the rider can essentially stand still while riding in a straight line.

If that is so, this would be the case for the SBU too.

Given that it should be only a single speed where this left-right stability occurs, it would still be overall an unstable system.

[Mono]

17 hours ago, Jason McNeil said:

Shane immediately filed his own Electric Unicycle patent on the basis of the inclusion of 'friction leg pads'

that is, Shanes was the inventor of the precursors to power pads. That's nice too. Personally, I am quite a fan of Kuji pads which are friction top ankle cushions (as I don't like sticky or confining pads at the lower legs).

Edited January 5 by Mono

[rcgldr]

2 hours ago, Mono said:

Given that it should be only a single speed where this left-right stability occurs, it would still be overall an unstable system.

Self-stability is similar to a bicycle, but due to different physics. Once at or above some specific speed, a bicycle or EUC will become self-stable left|right. On a bicycle it's because of steering geometry (trail) that steers the bike into the direction the bike is leaned. On an EUC, camber effect causes the EUC to steer into the direction the EUC is leaned. An instability tends to cause a bike or EUC to lean into the direction of imbalance, and at sufficient speed, the steering response is enough to steer the bike or EUC back underneath the rider. As speed increases beyond the minimal stable speed, the self-balancing left|right occurs at a faster pace with smaller corrections (steering responses).  Angular momentum dampens these responses, reducing the tendency to over-correct and wobble, but wobbles can still occur. 

As an example of self-stability, the girl in this video swings a backpack around, puts her cell phone into the pack, swings the pack back on, not having to focus on balance since her EUC maintains left-right stability. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5HB40I4C3g&t=440s

Turning on an EUC requires the rider to coordinate how much to tilt the EUC to steer, and how much to lean for balance, depending on speed and turning radius.

 

Edited January 5 by rcgldr

[woke rider]

What about this one by Mark Valerevich BUTENKO US20210269116A1 electric unicycle patent.pdf

[atdlzpae]

7 hours ago, rcgldr said:

As an example of self-stability, the girl in this video swings a backpack around, puts her cell phone into the pack, swings the pack back on, not having to focus on balance since her EUC maintains left-right stability. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5HB40I4C3g&t=440s

That's not any kind of "self" stability, it's the brain doing all the calculations and corrections to keep the EUC riding straight.
Do the same thing and you'll see how many adjustments your body is making without you even realizing it.

It's just like a car. You're doing 10 things at the same time, but since you've been doing it for hundreds of hours, the only thing you really say to your brain is "speed up" or "change the lane" and your brain does all 10 necessary steps (looking at mirrors, changing the gear, using the clutch, swinging the steering wheel, ...) automatically.

Edited January 5 by atdlzpae

[woke rider]

It's common for several people to invent the same device. The concept of being able to patent a device as basic as the electric unicycle is problematic, it's more like a discovery as far as I'm concerned. Same thing with radio, bicycles, and automobiles. These are devices that would have been invented anyway. It's not fair for somebody to try to claim rights to these types of devices. Monsanto really got out of control by patenting their corn seeds. It's not fair to patent a plant, which pharmaceutical companies try to do.

It's a fair statement to say that all drama plots can be attributed to to Shakespeare and all inventions can be attributed to Davinvci, so the proliferation of all these patents is moot.

Edited January 5 by iwantmymtv
one more thing