DEKA had produced 30 units, each the size of a compact refrigerator. A pair of Slingshot devices ran successfully for a month in a village in Honduras during the summer of 2006. While the initial devices cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Kamen hopes that increased economies of scale will allow production machines to be made available for $2,000 each. In 2008, Kamen demonstrated the device on The Colbert Report. In his TEDMED 2010 presentation, Kamen lamented throughout that when he asked for "a few million dollars" over a few months, no large global health organizations supported the development. Later in the presentation, he announced a partnership with The Coca-Cola Company. In 2011, field tests of Slingshot in five towns in Ghana proved their effectiveness and durability. In October 2012, Kamen and Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent announced at the Clinton Global Initiative that in collaboration with DEKA Research, Africare and Inter-American Development Bank, they will start bringing the Slingshot to rural parts of Latin America and Africa. The first initiative will be testing the Slingshot technology in health centers and schools in remote communities in Latin America in 2013. Proposed development Kamen hopes to send thousands of the units with local village entrepreneurs, in much the same way independent cell phone businesses have thrived and gradually changed the face of many impoverished areas around the globe. Future target price for the device is in the $1,000 to $2,000 range. As of 2020, the product does not seem to be in commercial production or wide use. The systems appear to be distributed in partnership with Coca-Cola as a component of EKOCENTER kiosks, of which over 150 have been deployed worldwide. See also Biosand filter, a point-of-use water treatment system adapted from traditional slow sand filters LifeStraw, designed by Vestergaard Frandsen LifeSaver bottle, designed by Michael Pritchard Tata Swach Sono arsenic filter, developed by Abul Hussam of George Mason University References External links Focus Forward 3-minute film Dean Kamen’s Slingshot water purifier and Stirling generator tech — low cost water and power for the developing world To Build a Better World Slingshot article and Tedmed video SlingShot documentary film (2014) Director: Paul Lazarus (IMDB listing) American inventions Water filters Water technology Water treatment