Autonomous flying umbrella follows and shields users from rain and sunlight (designboom.com)

Good for a haircut too.

That's really cool honestly. This took me back to around 2017 when everyone was into hardware startups.

IMO 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

>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!

I 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.

And drenches them in sound

The kid would appear to have a future job opportunity at Cyberdyne Systems.

I think this is in the category of excess application of technology

noise, 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)

Bonus: free hairdryer!

Following the Ukraine war has basically made me flinch at the sight and sound of drones.

what about hydrogen or helium to extend battery life?

That'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.

Next: why carry a phone or laptop when you can have a flying desk?

tangent: 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.

Reminds me of the floating umbrella that appeared on Caladan in the 1984 Dune movie.

Lacking 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.

I went to look for maximum wind speed this would work in, didn't find it. Maybe it's not an issue for inland dwellers.

The 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.