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This could change mankind, and the disease that has burdened it for all of history could be forever diminished... I hope it's as real as it appears, and that it will be used!!!

Kind of a funny place to introduce such a monumental invention. I sure hope it lives up to the hype.

I remember hearing about this when the Segway was still the "It project" hopefully this will have more of a positive impact for those who need it most

anyone know where the specifications are? Devil is always in the details...

Nice. How does it work?

Dean rocks my world!

FIRST has been an amazing experience for me, and now this can help so many people

You could hook that baby up to a public toilet on the in end and a fountain on the other. Mmmm....fresh water.

Great place to get involved with this issue and read more about it. http://www.water.org/

Dean Kamen is a modern day hero. Not everything he touches turns to gold, but we ride the backs of men and women like this.

nobody owns the water..

What about cost? I believe He is speaking about poor people not having access to clean water.

Hopefully this invention will get to the people who need it the most and can't afford it instead of some corporation hording it out for profit.

It's not as good as this:

Dean Kamen Invents Fart/Poop Detector

March 20, 2002

MANCHESTER, NH (JD) – The inventor of a revolutionary heart pump valve, a two wheeled urban transportation device, and the holder of over 150 U.S. and foreign patents has unveiled his latest technological creation: the fart/poop detector.

According to Kamen, the device will discretely indicate (at that critical moment) whether your body is fated to simply pass wind or to pass something more. Strapped to your lower body, the device will emit one soft pulse from an electrode for the former, and two soft pulses for the latter. "This device will make it easier to eat chilli." said inventor Dean Kaman. "And it will remove some of the anxiety from modern living. You won’t have to dread the possibility of either a fart or a poop. You will have a certain certainty." The device will be marketed under the brand name Defassure and is expected to be available to consumers by May, 2003.

Kamen is a Hero in my book.

Its all fine and wonderful that it takes out poison and chemicals and disease but where do those go? Does it take them to the same place the dryer takes my socks?

i dont understand what happens to all the impurities you take out of the water. With no 'disposables' where do all the pee particles go?

Kamen is a good dude. Colbert needs to be president.

Well, it's a long time in coming. All these years people have been dying and the earth's population has continued its unabated decline. If it weren't for inventions like this the human race would soon die out.

While I commend him on his invention, this guy DID think the segway would revolutionise transport, so I'm not sure I trust his 50% figure.

Lifestraw maybe a interim solution until the units can be mass produced.
http://www.lifestraw.com/en/low/low.asp

Vapor Compression Distillers have been around for a long time.
Google Vapor Compression Distiller and see all the hits.

The humanitarian side of me says this is amazing and will improve billions of lives! The pessimistic side of me however realizes the implications of doubling the earth's population. I hate to say it, but disease/starvation does serve a purpose in keeping our earth from getting overburdened/overpopulated. Eventually, and sooner than we all think, we will run out of space/resources for our growing population. Yes its completely unfair that those poor people are mis fortuned while I am in a comfortable apartment with clean water and food to eat, but I didn't make it that way so don't flame me for pointing out the obvious. I'd personally rather have a smaller sustained human population than have an explosive growth and fizzle out...but that might be my biology background speaking as well. And again, before you all argue ethics or whatever this happens in the natural world ALL THE TIME.

It also distills Sweet & Spicy Chili Doritos...
Too bad they cut that part out..

GNU open source it.

To all the Segway detractors: It failed because of the cost. An affordable Segway.. something that could be had on the order of low hundreds of dollars, really could do a lot of the initial hype. The Segway was just too expensive for most people. A low-cost-to-buy Segway would be a huge hit. The overwhelming majority of most people live and work within its usable range. The technology just isn't far enough along for it to be affordable.

This machine could fall to the same fate, but the gains to be had are arguably much more tangible. This is a machine that could save our world as we know it. We'll be running out of usable water in many places long before the oil wells run dry.

I'm a licensed water plant operator. I'd really be interested to see what this unit uses for flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and sanitation, especially in such a small unit. I'd have to assume that its using some kind of high efficiency reverse osmosis filter (which would account for removing viruses) or maybe even nanotubes (which I've only read about in trade journals, and only in relation to desalination).

This is a boon to tiny communities that need clean water immediately, but in the long run what 3rd world nations need are municipal scale water plants (millions of gallons of potable water a day, not just tens of gallons) and the infrastructure to maintain them. Baby steps, I suppose.

This is amazing! Hopefully the cost is low enough for it to be bought, or given, to many of the developing countries. Hell all countries can make great use of this. Dean Kamen is quite a man, working on artificial limbs that work like the real deal, and now this. He deserves nothing less than the Nobel Peace Prize, our respect, and our love.

With the cost of commodities like corn, wheat and oil skyrocketing do we really need tens of millions of additional consumers right now? Next thing you know they'll want sub-prime-mortgages-in-a-box.

So if I took a big fat dump into that container it would squeeze clean water out of it. I'm not so sure I'd be ready to drink out of it just yet.

why isn't this on every major news network??? I know why, but the answer depresses me :(

I've seen a few other distiller purifiers. I'm curious about how this one is substantially different (the output specs are not out of line with existing purifiers) and I'm curious what the power requirements are. Boiling gallons of water is pretty expensive. Not sure how many poor people with no water are going to have large amounts of power available (or fuel).

pffttt... kevin costner did it in '95 and it didn't have to be plugged in neither

We must squash him.
-Dick Cheney

I hope this doesn't turn into some kind of I am Legend.

i hope they wipe out the cholera disease :)

All it needs is an OLPC, and we're set!