You’ll Never Believe How This Invisible Umbrella Keeps Rain Away
THE FUTURE, GUYS. It’s sort of scary and sort of weird and sort of right now. An invisible umbrella is something we never thought would be possible (it wasn’t on Star Trek, so how could it ever be a thing?), but it exists, and it’s currently raised more than 300% of its goal on Kickstarter. We’re talking about the Air Umbrella, and it fights rain by shooting air at it.
Chinese designers have developed an umbrella that looks a little like a sex toy and forms a shelter from the rain using air flow. It shoots air out at the rain to create a sort of wind-shield around your body. That means no more inadvertent Mary Poppins-ing, no more storage challenges for wet umbrellas and, most importantly, no more windy umbrella blowouts. However, it could also be a pretty complex solution to a problem that regular umbrellas have already solved, depending on who you ask.
The Air Umbrella is currently under research and development, so the end product could be entirely different from what’s shown now. The company says they are making progress in improving the appearance, “handness” and battery life of the product, which is why they have chosen to raise money on Kickstarter. WTF is “handness,” by the way?
This project is totally blowing its Kickstart goal out of the water (that’s falling from the sky), so if you want your umbrella plus charger, you’re going to need to lay down $118. Lower price options are already awash.
Do you think you’d use an Air Umbrella? Let us know in the comments!