Dean Kamen Reinvents Coke's Soda Fountain

On Sept. 29, Dean Kamen—the maverick inventor behind the Segway and the first wearable insulin pump for diabetics, and the multimillionaire founder of DEKA Research & Development—stood before a small audience at the AMC Parkway Pointe theater in Atlanta to speak publicly for the first time about a recent collaboration. And it was a surprising one: The man known for developing life-saving medical devices had teamed up with Coca-Cola (KO) on the beverage giant's much-touted, next-generation soda fountain: the Freestyle.

Why was Kamen busying himself on a soft-drink dispenser? It brings to mind Steve Jobs's reputed question to PepsiCo (PEP) then-president and future Apple (AAPL) CEO John Sculley: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?" Kamen falls in the latter camp, but he says he saw in Coca-Cola, and in the innovative Freestyle project specifically, a way to advance two of his change-the-world projects.