The Air Umbrella: using air to protect against water (via kickstarter)
A Chinese inventor named Chuan Wang has drastically reinvented the umbrella. In late September, Wang headed a successful Kickstarter campaign for his Air Umbrella. The Air Umbrella looks like a wand and deflects water away from the user, acting like an umbrella, using high pressure air. It seems like a cool futuristic idea, except for the poor person who happens to be standing next to you -they'll be pissed and soaking wet.
His original Kickstarter goal was $10,000, and Wang raised over $86,000 in funds for his idea. Now, the idea seems to be a reality with the Air Umbrella set for release in December 2015. It will cost between $88 and $108 depending upon which size wand you opt for. The Air Umbrella currently comes in three sizes. The smallest one can fit in a purse at only 30 cm long, but the battery life on that one is only 15 minutes. The largest Air Umbrella is 80 cm long and has a battery life of 30 minutes. Needless to say, you shouldn't count on taking a nice stroll through the park with this thing. But, you could possibly make it to the nearest corner store and back before it gives out on you.
I imagine this was created for the ideal, metropolitan American that only walks from the house to their car and from the car to the office.
The Air Umbrella works via a strong motor-propelled fan inside the top of the wand. The fan sucks air out of the bottom of the wand and throws it out of the top vents at high speed: creating an invisible umbrella made of air. The bottom of the wand has an on and off button. The bottom part of the umbrella also controls the air pressure: for those light misty rains that don't require full throttle.
This design was created by Wang at Nanjing University and Beijing University with a group of postgraduates in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department. Who knows, this idea may catch on and everyone will have an Air Umbrella.
Its niche is that it can easily fit in a purse or bag and you don't need to worry about strong winds breaking your umbrella. While it does seem like a clever idea, I have a few umbrellas that still work just fine and cost significantly less than $88. What puts me off most is the battery life. You'd probably have to keep a few emergency umbrellas around for when your Air Umbrella runs out of juice... then you'll just be left in the middle of a storm, soaking wet, holding a phallic shaped object in your hands.
Wang says he is currently working on increasing the battery life. I hope he does. This may be one of those inventions that becomes perfect with version 2.0. If you don't mind the short battery life, give the Air Umbrella a whirl in December – pun intended. If nothing else, it would be perfect for LARPing (live action role-playing ) in and outside of the rain.
C
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