SlashGear

It’s all too easy to forget the importance of eye contact in communication, whether that be mis-interpreted emails leading to you either getting fired or accidentally involved in a romantic assignation with the boss’ wife, or face to face negotiation where you pay twice as much as you needed to. At the risk of stating the obvious, eye contact is made all the more difficult when you’re not at typical eye level.

Enter this creative industrial design, seemingly drawing on the Segway only with added flaps, scoops and braces that can support a paraplegic upright. For now it’s a concept, but I can’t imagine there’s a shortage of people who would be highly interested in seeing it reach the metaphorical shelves.

Of course this isn’t the first time Segway-style balancing has been used to assist those in wheelchairs; the iBOT Mobility System, retailing for a scary $26,100, is a standard wheelchair with an extra set of adjustable wheels permitting upright balancing.

Standing Wheelchair [the cool hunter]