DailyDirt: Build A Better Mousetrap Umbrella...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Oct 29th 2014 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There are all kinds of ways to improve on everyday items. We've talked about how wallets are a popular type of project on Kickstarter, but there are certainly plenty of other things that could be re-designed and made slightly (or significantly) better. The Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about building a better mousetrap actually didn't mention mousetraps, but we've ended up with a lot of mousetrap inventions, regardless. Here are just a few examples of umbrella inventions that the world might beat a path to.

A novel umbrella (called the Sa) uses origami techniques to fold up nicely and resist inverting in strong winds. It's a $70 umbrella, though, so it's not quite for everyone. (Plus, it's not made out of a single square sheet of paper.) [url]
Another Kickstarter umbrella project is selling a battery-powered wand that shoots jets of air to repel raindrops. It doesn't actually exist yet (which might be a violation of Kickstarter's terms), and it looks not unlike a fat plastic toilet plunger. Despite the drawbacks of this design and its $88 price tag, it has exceeded its funding goal by about an order of magnitude. [url]
A few years ago, another Air Umbrella was designed by Je Sung Park & Woo Jung Kwon, but this concept product didn't solve the engineering challenges of creating a curtain of air that actually repelled raindrops. Perhaps someday there will be a wide selection of nice-looking, quiet, electric umbrellas, but in the meantime, noisy air-blowing umbrellas hopefully won't get too popular. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: air umbrella, crowdfunding, design, inventions, origami, sa, umbrellas
Companies: kickstarter

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2014 @ 5:53pm

My favorite part about Air Umbrella is the phony accent employed by the narrator. More products should use that technique- after all if a foreigner made it it's clearly innovative!
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Bt Garner (profile), 29 Oct 2014 @ 6:17pm

I'd think that the air umbrella would throw more rain onto people passing by, and they might not be too happy about that.
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even the score!, 29 Oct 2014 @ 7:52pm

tactical umbrellas
Watching the Hong Kong protests, I was surprised at how well umbrellas could be used as weapons to battle the baton and pepper spray wielding Hong Kong riot police, including an improved, modernized version of the 16th century Gevierthaufen (Pike Square).

There are many companies making a wide variety of weapons intended for police to use against demonstrators, but I've got to wonder, does any company manufacture a specialized heavy-duty tactical umbrella designed for protecting demonstrators from aggressive heavy-handed police?

Ideally, such an umbrella would be able to protect users against the various "less lethal" rounds commonly stocked in police arsenals, as well as hold up to repeated baton impact. So it would need to be engineered to have enough flexibility in the ribs to absorb blows without breaking but not so much that a flying baton pushes back the ribs and smashes the user's head.
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kP (profile), 30 Oct 2014 @ 8:53am

Major design issue for (Kickstarter) Air Umbrella
Because the air intake vent is it at the top of the shaft, so must be the turbine which produces the air flow. Any long hair near the air intake *will* be quickly and painfully wound around this turbine.
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