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Autonomous flying umbrella follows and shields users from rain and sunlight
- comrade1234 3mo agoGood for a haircut too.
- saltcured 3mo agoYeah, I can only imagine the stability when breezy weather hits that big sail
- ricardobayes 3mo agoThat's really cool honestly. This took me back to around 2017 when everyone was into hardware startups.
- derwiki 3mo agoInteresting, not what I remember from 2017. To which hardware startups are you referring?
- ricardobayes 3mo agoWell that was the peak of the kickstarter era, tons of wearables and new projects. You know, like Pebble
- tonymillion 3mo agoOr the Nixie [1] (actually nixie was earlier, but went out of business in 2017) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_Labs_Nixie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_Labs_Nixie
- dlcarrier 3mo agoOne example of the peak of that craziness was in 2016, after Snapchat released glasses with an embedded camera, which were more or less received as as a gimmick by their user base, Snapchat changed their name to Snap Inc and told their investors that they're now a hardware company.
- 12_throw_away 3mo agoIMO it's worth watching the video rather than reading someone's writeup of it. My favorite part is this (written) list of everything that went wrong [1] ... and how much of it is due to the intersection of hardware, software, vendors, and linux [1] https://youtu.be/EYRrUiM_A6g?si=T60tAChuo-GNtfqW&t=921 https://youtu.be/EYRrUiM_A6g?si=T60tAChuo-GNtfqW&t=921
- tantalor 3mo ago[flagged]
- 12_throw_away 3mo ago[flagged]
- amelius 3mo ago> and how much of it is due to the intersection of hardware, software, vendors, and linux They should have used Apple hardware.
- karmakaze 3mo agoThat's useless as a product, fun as a project. I don't even like carrying the smallest of folding umbrellas around in case it might rain. Then if it does, this thing will hover so far above and away that you get wet anyway optimistically saving up to 50% of raindrops. 50% wet is still wet. If I have an umbrella I hold it close over my head unless I'm covering someone walking with me.
- dinfinity 3mo ago50% is very generous. In the video it isn't even consistently above his body half the time. It is also constantly a good 80cm above him, so even a slight bit of side wind makes it fully useless to keep you dry. Any wind speed above 20m/s is also going to just blow it straight out of the air or at best heavily reduce flight time. And then there is the little issue with having a mini lawn mower constantly above your head: loud and dangerous. Having said that, we can still applaud the creator for bringing their idea to life.
- tamimio 3mo ago>what was supposedly a small project ended up big and complicated Welcome to the drone world! So many moving parts and one tiny mistake, you end up losing a $60k drone in the ocean (true story!) That being said, regulations prevent flying drones of any size above people, unless the drone is high to certain altitude, because of all the dangers that bring, a small issues and the props will harm them. Cool project tho!
- projektfu 3mo agoBetter than losing the expense vehicle prototype and the pilot as well.
- Zigurd 3mo agoI saw this on Facebook before I saw it here. While it bears a superficial resemblance to 1000s of clickbaity tech stunts this one really delighted me. Some of these should be edited into a remastered release of Blade Runner.
- 4b11b4 3mo agoAnd drenches them in sound
- SoftTalker 3mo agoThe kid would appear to have a future job opportunity at Cyberdyne Systems.
- zkmon 3mo agoI think this is in the category of excess application of technology
- m463 3mo agoI don't know - I got an automatic garbage can that not only opens and closes, it also ejects the garbage bag when it is full and vacuums in another one into place. today's luxury is tomorrow's necessity. things get normalized. pop-up ads, selfies, subscriptions, the cybertruck...
- rf15 3mo agoyou got me, I am deadly afraid of the world in which any of these become a necessity
- nine_k 3mo ago> today's luxury is tomorrow's necessity Indeed, see stuff like fridges, cars, phones, internet access... > pop-up ads, selfies, subscriptions, the cybertruck... None of these are a luxury, or ever was; in a way, they are the opposite.
- mensetmanusman 3mo agopop-up ads - existence depends on surplus technology, electricity, and global communications networks. - not required for food, shelter, water, or survival. ergo luxury
- SequoiaHope 3mo agoI think there is some middle category between “required for survival” and “luxury”.
- nine_k 3mo agoMosquitoes depend on the existence of highly developed, warm-blooded vertebrates. Are they therefore a luxury? A luxury is something that makes your life actually better, but too expensive for most people.
- hdorchy 3mo agonoise, autonomy are real constraints. And the wind resistance is a safety critical issue. To make it wind resistant you need to increase the drone's power/weight ratio which works against battery life/autonomy and weight (more battery, more weight) This is a nice technical experiment but cannot work as a general public product in my opinion (I build drones since 2013 and know this topic in depth)
- mlmonkey 3mo agoBonus: free hairdryer!
- SubiculumCode 3mo agoFollowing the Ukraine war has basically made me flinch at the sight and sound of drones.
- rg2004 3mo agowhat about hydrogen or helium to extend battery life?
- Animats 3mo agoThat's cute. They need to be able to deal with other flying umbrellas nearby, if this is to be a product, of course. This would probably sell in Shenzhen.
- amelius 3mo agoNext: why carry a phone or laptop when you can have a flying desk?
- alphakappa 3mo agotangent: ridiculous that a site called designbloom has such an atrocious user experience. popovers, things that take over your reading space, and just general shiftiness all over the page that's unrelated to the content you are reading.
- asnelt 3mo agoReminds me of the floating umbrella that appeared on Caladan in the 1984 Dune movie.
- beaker52 3mo agoLacking a bit of sleep, I initially read this as “anonymous flying umbrella follows and shields users from rain” which certainly intrigued me more than the actual title.
- RetroTechie 3mo agoThat would piss me off so badly! Wanting to get rained on, get soaked to the bone, and then some &@^# hoverella prevents that from happening. Aargh!
- jusssi 3mo agoI went to look for maximum wind speed this would work in, didn't find it. Maybe it's not an issue for inland dwellers.
- zkmon 3mo agoThe usecase requirements for an umbrella are not just hovering over the person, and I suspect even that core requirement might not be met in windy conditions. The other important specs are its weight and space requirement, handling requirement, cost, ease of operation. If it regressed in all these specs compared to the standard umbrella, then it already failed to be an innovation.