Sunday, May 30, 2010

Our Cyberpunk World: Hoverboards Are Almost Here

The article: A Real, Working Hoverboard Exists (Gizmodo)

In Spanner (set in 2014-6), Shira rides a hoverboard. For all we know, she could be the future Tony Hawk or Stacy Peralta of hoverboarding, once that Corporate Empire thing is safely relegated to the trash compactor of history. Well, a French artist is bringing the hoverboard out of the realm of science fiction (and videogames) by building a workable prototype. It's not ridable yet (it's actually smaller than a standard skateboard; compare this to Shira's snowboard-sized sky racer), but that's the next step.

The Gizmodo article states:
The board floats through simple electromagnetism, but the more brilliant part of the design seems to be a laser stabilization system that, we're assuming, dynamically adjusts the magnets to keep the board afloat under duress. Just watch Nils push on the board near the end of the clip. It responds with little more than a shrug.

Now that somebody has finally made an actual working prototype hoverboard, it's now only a matter of time before daredevils start flying through the sky on their hoverboards, and they won't have to wait till, say, 2014 to do it. Will hoverboards beat jetpacks into stores? Now we know it's certain.

Here's Guadagnin's demonstration video:

HOVERBOARD - NILS GUADAGNIN from nils guadagnin on Vimeo.

Back to Spanner’s World...

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