Toyota's Idea Of Mobility Includes Stair-Climbing Wheelchair And Wearable GPS For Blind People

Automakers aren't just car companies any more; now they're "mobility companies." It's a catch-all phrase they use to describe how they're adapting to new business models and new competitors, like Uber, Lyft and Google .

But  Toyota Motor 's idea of future mobility is even broader. At its new $1 billion Toyota Research Institute in Palo Alto, scientists and engineers are working not just on ideas to help people get around outside their homes, but inside as well.

“The future of mobility is moving beyond the car and into areas we didn’t imagine even just a few years ago,” Jim Lentz, chief executive of Toyota Motor North America, said in a recent interview. “The reality is if we have the technology for vehicles, why not put it to other, better uses as well in society?”

It's that philosophy that brought Toyota together with Segway inventor Dean Kamen to develop the next generation iBOT motorized wheelchair. Toyota will provide funds to Kamen's company, DEKA Research and Development, in exchange for a license to its balancing technology.

Kamen developed the unique stair-climbing wheelchair 15 years ago, with financial support from Johnson & Johnson   It has two sets of powered wheels that rotate up and over one another to allow the user to “walk” up and down stairs, using gyroscopes that sense and adjust to a person's center of gravity.

It also lets disabled people rise from a sitting position to eye-level and even stroll should-to-shoulder alongside a companion. And the iBot is rugged enough to handle a variety of terrain, not just paved pathways.

Although hailed as a revolutionary way to restore mobility and dignity to the disabled, the iBot was pulled from the market in 2009, a victim of insurance and regulatory red tape. Medicare concluded that the $26,000 chair's innovative features weren't medically necessary, so it offered reimbursement for only the $6,000 price of a standard motorized wheelchair.

Now, thanks to an introduction by Gill Pratt, the former top robotics engineer for the U.S. military running the Toyota Research Institute, Toyota will help Kamen bring back a new version of the iBot.

"It was a godsend they showed up and said, 'Dean, we share your vision. We’ll start by helping you get your iBots back in business.' I never would have thought of partnering with a company like Toyota," Kamen said in an interview.

Toyota has already developed prototypes for personal mobility, like the iRoad, a three-wheeled cross between a motorcycle and a car, Nagata noted. "But in order for us to help more people, we have to work on things that help people go door-through-door, rather than door-to-door," he said.

It's that kind of thinking that led to Project BLAID -- a prototype for a wearable mobility device Toyota invented that helps blind people use voice commands to navigate public places like shopping malls. The horseshoe-shaped BLAID rests over the shoulders and uses cameras and GPS technology to direct a blind person to a rest room or a particular store, for instance. It’s even equipped with facial recognition technology so it can identify an approaching friend. “It goes beyond what a seeing eye dog could ever do,” said Lentz.

Toyota isn't alone. Honda Motor , for example, developed the UNI-CUB, a sort of motorized unicycle to help people get around. It's also selling a walking assist device created from research based on its humanoid robot, ASIMO.

“Toyota, like most of the other manufacturers, are deeply scratching their heads about what mobility means,” said Jez Frampton, chief executive of Interbrand, a London-based brand consultancy. “They’ve got to step back, not just as a car company, and ask, ‘What does our brand give us license to provide?’ We call it brand stretch,” he said. “They’re absolutely right to stretch their legs and see how can they provide a wider ranger of services.”