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Autonomous flying umbrella follows and shields users from rain and sunlight
(www.designboom.com)
all this makes me think of is XKCD's "what if you used a laser to vaporize the rain around you?"
I haven't seen that one; link us!
It's great that umbrellas can now contain more toxic chemicals, rare minerals and disposable batteries, but can we also please make it depend on an app and a paid subscription, contain an AI assistant that tells you whether it's raining, and report in real time on all your movements and conversations?
As someone who also makes weird shit. The media have their weird obsession with everything being practical.
Most of the time, the people making these are doing it purely for the amusement/challenge of it. Think of it as art, not product development.
not a fan of over complicated solutions that are worse for the environment simply to save very little effort
it doesn't save effort tho it requires like a lot more effort than multiple alternatives lol
nah i feel like there are use cases where use would be less physical effort
I mean I guess but now imagine having to charge it or it discharging while you're walking outside or it falling behind.
It's just very inconvenient and bad for crowded places too, easier to steal.
Imagine carrying that while you travel.
yea, no way it would work without a major support setup
besides where do you even put thar when you get to your destiny
Maybe your destiny was just to carry it, and there is nothing after.
you just die after lol
yea it would need all kinds of setup
if we had a better clean energy infrastructure maybe i’d be willing to figure that kinda thing out
Can’t go outside, my umbrella is charging.
You know what else you could use with two free hands? Use one to hold an umbrella. Seems a bit much for most people. Still cool though.
I was going to say the same: while cool I think we’re wasting a lot of resources reinventing stuff that doesn’t necessarily need reinventing.
We’re in the middle of a climate crisis but digging up rare earth metals, assembling plastic pieces all for a self-moving umbrella doesn’t seem very in tune with nature.
It'd make way more sense if this was an overall guard bot with anti-drone nets, a Taser, and pepper spray.
Isn’t that just a workaround for not solving social issues? Is there that much crime where you live?
Oh, the amount of actual crime is irrelevant and hypothetical; all I'm saying is that there would be so much energy put into sustaining a flying umbrella that it may as well be able to do multiple things at once to make it more worthwhile. We could equip it with lawnmower blades to make it capable of mowing lawns as well, etc.
No but the innovation and the economy. The curve must go up!
I feel like someone is following me.
Same problem with heavy, gusting wind that a hand-held one has. It would be bobbing all over the place. Where I live we only get rain with wind making standard umbrellas almost useless.
Fun to mess around with, great for views and clicks, but not practical at all.
But backpack umbrellas already exist and require no batteries or connection
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
"AND SO YOU SEE, IT'S JUST SO CONVEN...I SAID...WAIT WHAT?"
Edit: it is neat, just being around this in public would be annoying lol
I’ve been thinking, the next big personal electronics shift on the level of smartphones will probably be some kind of drone. I don’t think an umbrella will do the trick, but there’s definitely something to this general idea — something that automatically follows you and acts as an extra appendage.
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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