Autonomous flying umbrella follows and shields users from rain and sunlight | Hacker News Reader

Autonomous flying umbrella follows and shields users from rain and sunlight

designboom.com

100 pointsamichail44 comments

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

> and how much of it is due to the intersection of hardware, software, vendors, and linux

They should have used Apple hardware.

That'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.

50% 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.

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.

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

I 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...

you got me, I am deadly afraid of the world in which any of these become a necessity

> 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.

pop-up ads - existence depends on surplus technology, electricity, and global communications networks. - not required for food, shelter, water, or survival.

ergo luxury

I think there is some middle category between “required for survival” and “luxury”.

Mosquitoes 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.

On the other hand, I used to have an automatic open garbage can. Absolutely hated it. Ended up replacing with a foot operated one. The benefits were:

* Never ran out of batteries

* Didn't rely on an IR sensor that would work about 80% of the time, but would sometimes require waving more than once to get it to open.

* Didn't have a delicate gearing mechanism (automatic one eventually stripped a gear and broke).

* No set open time. God forbid you throw something in, turn to the counter and throw a second thing in...

* large lid, since it relies on foot power, not a motor / battery can only realistically open a certain weight lid.

My inlaws also have an automatic one -- last time I visited I saw that they also suffered from the stripped gear issue...

I wish public restrooms used foot-operated faucets instead of the existing "wave frantically for 3 seconds of water" sensors they have.

I am jealous of the auto-seal garbage bag option, but I am skeptical about long term reliability.

I don't sweat reliability that much. If it fails, I will one-click a bigger model and toss the broken one in the new one. :)

> today's luxury is tomorrow's necessity.

Not sure about necessity but it sure sound like it's tomorrow's e-waste and land fill material

Can you share the model? Have seen self-sealing and self-changing via a ring of new bags and heat-sealer, but not one yet with an ejection feature.

Sorry, actually it doesn't eject, more like "makes sealed bag available". Yes, ring of bags. Press and hold button, it cuts and seals old bag, you open lid and pull out full bag, close lid and it feeds and vacuums new bag into place with no air in corners. And you're ready for more tossing, into the handy lighted maw of an empty trash can. lol

It is this one, I have two sizes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5BQ6B9V

Thank you! You may have seeded a very cool idea for someone to pursue, though! I would be a buyer lol.

consider captain america, perhaps an autonomous flying riot shield that protects, and strikes out.

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

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.

That 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!

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.

And drenches them in sound

Bonus: free hairdryer!

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

>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!

Better than losing the expense vehicle prototype and the pilot as well.

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.

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)

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.

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

Interesting, not what I remember from 2017. To which hardware startups are you referring?

Well that was the peak of the kickstarter era, tons of wearables and new projects. You know, like Pebble

Or the Nixie [1] (actually nixie was earlier, but went out of business in 2017)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_Labs_Nixie

One 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.

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

Do you mean the glowglobe rather than an umbrella? The glowglobes were used for lighting.

Yes, I do mean the glowglobe. As they are floating right above the person, they should also protect from rain. And there was a scene where one was floating through the rain.

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

Good for a haircut too.

Yeah, I can only imagine the stability when breezy weather hits that big sail

what about hydrogen or helium to extend battery life?

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.

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