The umbrella is one of those gadgets that hasn't really been updated much in the last 150 years. Sure, technological advancements have allowed them to become easier to handle and more durable, but overall, it's pretty much the same deal.
But a new Kickstarter campaign has launched that changes the umbrella game completely, and it's guaranteed to blow your mind. Or at least it will blow the rain off of you.
A group based in China has developed the Air Umbrella. The Air Umbrella is described as a real "invisible umbrella" that keeps you nice and dry from the rain by shooting air at it. "The flowing air can change the moving path of the object," according to the description of the product on Kickstarter. "The jet airflow can isolate some objects." The video on Air Umbrella's Kickstarter page shows that the device does in fact keep the rain at bay.
Currently, there are three sizes of the Air Umbrella available: 30 centimeters in length (almost a foot long), 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches) and 80 centimeters (almost 32 inches). The 30-centimeter Air Umbrella is for some reason labeled as "for female" on the Kickstarter page because it's small enough to fit into bags. Mmmkay. The smallest size also has a battery life of 15 minutes, whereas the larger sizes can be used for 30 minutes continuously when fully charged. That's not very helpful if you have a particularly long walk home, but at least you'll be dry for part of it.
You can also fit two people under the Air Umbrella if the rain isn't too heavy. However, it sounds like there's a possibility that the air that comes out of the umbrella will blow right onto the person next to you. "Generally speaking, most raindrops will be blown to 50-70 centimeters away. If two [people] are more than two shoulders away from each other, they will not affect each other," according to the FAQ section of the Air Umbrella's Kickstarter page. And if someone is standing right next to you, they will probably be holding an umbrella also, the Kickstarter page says. And if they don't have an umbrella, it's raining, so they're going to get wet anyway.
The creators of the Air Umbrella first designed the gadget with the help of postgraduates from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics from July 2012 to August 2013. Then, they partnered with graduates from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to improve the design, which they finished in July 2014 by coloring the product "to make it better-looking."
And now the Air Umbrella looks like many things other than an umbrella. Did the creators borrow inspiration from the Shake Weight? A drum major mace? Or, as The Huffington Post pointed out, a personal massager? With all of those images in your head now, can you still see yourself walking down the street with one of these things in your hand?
With three days left to go, the Air Umbrella Kickstarter campaign has well surpassed its goal of $10,000 by raising $91,448 at the time of this writing. The creators plan on sending Air Umbrellas to their backers by December 2015.
Now you're probably wondering how much one of these babies will set you back. The creators predict that the market price of the Air Umbrella will be about $200. Gadgets can certainly be more efficient and make you feel high-tech and all, but in this case, I'm not sure it's worth it to shell out all that moolah for a product that is notorious for falling a part just when you need it most.
