CABLE-TEC 2012: Segway inventor pitches Stirling engine device to power cable nets

ORLANDO - Famed inventor Dean Kamen, the brains behind the once-promising and much-hyped Segway motorized scooter, is now pitching cable operators on his newest really big idea. Speaking at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Cable-Tec Expo show in Orlando last week. Kamen promoted a generator designed to provide reliable power to areas that can’t get electricity from “the grid.” The 10-kilowatt device relies on an external combustion engine that’s based on the principles of the Stirling engine, a 200-year-old technology that’s been used before but never successfully commercialized. Kamen claimed that this device, which his company, DEKA Research...