Dean Kamen, the inventor most known for his self-balancing human transporter, the Segway, has just unveiled a new invention that he has reportedly been working on for five years. Named The Slingshot, it is a vapor compression distiller, and while the idea is not new, doing it in such an efficient (using 2% of the power of convention distillers) and mass produced way certainly is.

Wired Science did an excellent job of researching and compiling a list of what is currently known about The Slingshot, which I’ve included below, along with the video from Kamen’s unveiling of the invention in action on The Colbert Report.

• It is designed to supply a village with 1,000 liters/day of clean water. (Colbert Report)

• You can use any water source — ocean, puddle, chemical waste site, hexavalent chrome, arsenic, poison, 50 gallon drum of urine. (Colbert Report)

• Vapor compression distillation is not new. Doing it in such an incredibly efficient way such that it takes only 2 percent of the power of convention distillers is new. (R&D World and Gizmodo commenter)

• The are no filters to replace, no charcoal, no anything disposable (just distillation). (Colbert Report)

• The Slingshot (as its called) can use half the waste heat (450 watts) from a sterling engine electrical generator (prototype also being designed by Kamen’s company) to boil its water. (TED)

• The heat put into the water is recovered with a “counter-flow heat exchanger” and recycled to heat the next batch of water (that is part of the novel bit). (TED and Gizmodo commenter)

• Slingshot will be less then 60 lbs. (TED)

• The prototype slingshot was hand-built for $100K. The goal is to get production units down to $1,000 to $2,000. (CNN)

• The sterling engine, used as an electrical generator, can produce about 200 watts of power (it will never be more then 20 percent efficient) and 800 watts of waste heat (the waste heat that slingshot uses). TED

• Later sources say the sterling engine can generate 1 kilowatt or enough power for 70 high-efficiency light bulbs. (CNN)

• The sterling engine can run on anything that burns, propane or even cow dung. (CNN)

• The slingshot is a David and Goliath reference aimed at putting water and power back in the hands of the individuals. (AP)

While it still has many obstacles to overcome before it becomes a viable solution to the world’s water problems, Kamen must have felt it is far enough along in development to do an unveiling like this to the public after five years in development. Time will tell if they can get it to a reasonable price and begin distributing them around the world as planned.

What do you think? Will The Slingshot rid the world of 50% of human disease as Kamen proclaims, or never make it main stream (no pun intended)? After the reluctance of commuters to accept the Segway as a serious means of transportation, some have their doubts. I have a feeling the world may just be a bit more thirsty for clean water.