Any 30-something’s dream can come true, with the news one innovator is bringing a Hoverboard to Kickstarter.
Hendo has launched a campaign to bring Hoverboards into the 21st century, alongside a developer kit that will allow you to make your own uses for the Hoverboard aside from the you, know, hovering.
The company also hopes to open up a number of hoverparks where you can effortlessly hover over a range of obstacles such as water (remember that scene in Back to the Future II?), slides, hills and other challenges. If you decide to pay for a brick at the hoverpark, you’ll have your name engraved and installed in the park so everyone knows how you were instrumental in maing this pasttime a reality.
So, here’s the science bit. Hovering takes the common misconception that movement is possibke using two magnets repelling each other. However, it’s impossible to keep this equillibrium going. But Hendo has developed a way round this using Lenz’s law that allows eddy currents to be created when magnets are moved over a conductive material.
Because of the technology used, Hendo hoverboards are cheaper than other available on the market and more reliable, the company says.
“Hovering modes of transportation are now possible and practical. Lifting a wide range of loads – whether it’s a person riding a hoverboard (what we were all expecting) or a building riding out an earthquake (what we never imagined could be possible) – is all within reach.”
If you don’t want to stump up the full $10,000 (£6200) for the hoverboard itself (although they’re already sold out), you can buy the White Box, which gives all the functionality of the hoverboard, without the board itself. It’s a floating box that can be used to develop applications for the full hoverboard and comes with skins so you can jazz up your hovering device.
The White Box costs from $949 (£600), because the first adopter boxes are all gone. Other options still available are a replica Hendo Hoverboard for $449 (£280) and the Hoverboard Experience that will get you a ride on the hoverboard either at the company’s Silicon Valley HQ or at locations when they are built.
