.Sy™ Posted October 21, 2014 Report Share Posted October 21, 2014 Well, sorta: Back to the Future was right: a working hoverboard will be available in 2015 A California startup has created a real-life hoverboard, and they even let me ride it. But it’s mostly a publicity stunt meant to raise interest in levitating other things. The good news: Just like Back to the Future Part II promised, you will be able to get your hands (or feet) on a working hoverboard on Oct. 21, 2015. The bad news: The board, which is called the Hendo, will cost $10,000 and the battery only lasts 7 minutes. Despite the hefty price tag, Arx Pax, the Los Gatos, Calif., startup behind the board, let me take it for a ride Monday afternoon. I wasn’t immediately steady enough to jerk the board in different directions, but I kept my balance as it slowly spun in a circle while I bounced between two of Arx Pax’s engineers. The board was large, almost like a doublewide snowboard. It felt as if I was standing on a giant air hockey puck hovering three quarters of an inch above the ground. Arx Pax doesn’t actually care much about giving you a totally rad new way to get from point A to B. Its real focus is a square white box that it is also offering up as a part of the $250,000 Kickstarter campaign it launched today. It’s a developer kit that’s meant to help anyone add hovering capabilities to anything they want, from a priceless work of art in a museum at risk for earthquakes to a robot moving parcels across a warehouse floor. The big catch is that the Hendo can only hover over some types of metal. At the Arx Pax office, we hovered over a floor and half pipe covered in copper. That’s because the board generates a magnetic field. When there is a sheet of metal underneath, it is powerful enough to push the board upward (it’s the same technology as a Maglev train). The developer kit can support up to 40 pounds. The Hendo board can support up to 300 pounds, with support for 500 pounds planned for the future. It only dipped for a fraction of a second when I hopped on. The Hendo hoverboard I rode hovered three quarters of an inch above the ground. Arx Pax’s founders, husband and wife team Greg and Jill Henderson, aren’t shy about the aspirations they have for the technology; they want to see everything from flying cars to space elevators made with it. When you speak with them, it’s clear that they generally live by that kind of ambition. Jill used to work in communications, while Greg was an architect. Jill described him sitting at home at their table with Wikipedia open, grappling over how to make his dream of levitation possible. “It’s the advantage of showing up without everyone else’s preconceived scientific notions,” Greg said. “We don’t have the proofs written out. A lot of scientists find that offensive. When we get this technology out into the hands of everyone else, that’s something I hope we can catch up on.” Arx Pax will refine the board over the next year to make it smaller and more stylish. It emits a noise right now that sounds like a cross between a fan, screaming and nails on a chalkboard, but within the next few months the startup expects to have it be completely silent (the developer kit is already totally silent). The team will also make it possible to step onto the board before it starts hovering. I witnessed a prototype called “Manta Ray” jump up from the ground and begin hovering without the lift the board needed to start. It’s possible to make the board hover higher, but one engineer explained that to double the hover height to 1.5 inches it would eat up about four times as much energy. Only certain applications would call for that kind of power consumption. So now that we’ve solved hoverboards, where are those flying cars from Back to the Future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Generations Posted October 21, 2014 Report Share Posted October 21, 2014 $10,000 for 7 minutes... Also, it's not really meeting the criteria for what a hoverboard is...it's just an electro magnet. I've seen things levitate before with the use of magnetism. Don't get me wrong, it's cool too see...but, it's nothing ground-breaking. To be a real hoverboard, it would need to hover anywhere...not just over metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 21, 2014 Report Share Posted October 21, 2014 This shit makes too much noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernez Posted October 21, 2014 Report Share Posted October 21, 2014 Aint no damn hoverboard, thats a floor buffer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WH!! Posted October 22, 2014 Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 Aint no damn hoverboard, thats a floor buffer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Dreadful Posted October 22, 2014 Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 yeah, that ain't a hoverboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Vercetti Posted October 22, 2014 Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 Looks like one of those vacuum cleaner things with neon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Sy™ Posted October 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 Yeah, that's why I said "sorta" lol. It's the closest to a hoverboard though and who knows, maybe there'll be legit ones in a not too distant future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Dahlia Posted October 22, 2014 Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 What a waste, $10,000 for 7 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petos Posted October 22, 2014 Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 That thing sounds like the goddamn Nazgul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROSS-Out Posted October 22, 2014 Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 The first computers took up the size of a room and barely processed a few bytes. The first cars were barebones and a pain in the ass. The first telephones were bulky and stuck on a wall. This is simply the prelude. A testament to say that the technology is actually possible. Like the bloody ipod, it'll get smaller and shinier... but hopefully won't be used by apple to screw its customers in the colon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★CrossRhodes★ Posted October 23, 2014 Report Share Posted October 23, 2014 Aint no damn hoverboard, thats a floor buffer. /thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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