A hover backpack can now glide you over streets
Students develop a hoverbackpack
A group of students at the University of Tokyo have developed a hover backpack - called Lunavity. Unlike a jetpack, the hover backpack is propelled by powerful fans that give the rider almost like an anti-gravity experience. The students believe this backpack could eventually replace crosswalks, assist paraplegics, and even allow people to enter buildings from the second floor.
Keep in mind this is only a prototype and there are a significant amount of improvements to make before the backpack can be commercialized, but it is definitely on the techchat team's wishlist! As described by Lunavity themselves: "Lunavity is a system designed to augment the human capability of jumping. An attachable multi-rotor elevates the user during the movement, enabling them to leap higher and further. In the future, where drones are widely used for delivery and/or transportation, it can be applied to augment our mobility temporarily."
Witness it for yourself
Ideally a mouthwatering prospect. But, what would, in your opinion be the downside to this technology? There has to be, no? Forgive my pessimism.
That's a great question. On the surface, most innovations seem like they come with no downside, but there is always usually a few. For starters, there isn't much room for error with a hover backpack. If I am hovering 15 feet in the air the backpack better have no malfunctions. Another downside could potentially be people getting even lazier.
It will take a lot of testing for something like this to be available to the public, but soon enough we will all be able to obtain one!
Fair enough. I agree. There cannot be room for error as the consequences can only be dire.
It is a great project though. One to look forward to, certainly.
That's a good innovation. What about if it malfunctions up in the air? What do you do?
Fall. :)
Definitely.
Great question! Technologies that fail is really inevitable. Take the autopilot Tesla that has gotten into fatal accidents for example.
There will have to be a lot of testing with something like a hover backpack and Lunavity should integrate a fail-safe system that will gently lower users of the backpack. I guess only time will tell what the students at the University of Tokyo decide to introduce to their hover backpack! I will be sure to keep you all posted if the techchat team hears of anything!
Alright bro! I will be waiting for the update.
This is remarkable, but I don’t see any practical uses of this technology, other than fun recreational activities. It helps people jump higher sure, but it looks very odd with the huge thing sticking out.
I totally see your point. It will be interesting to see how the students at Lunavity make this technology applicable besides just being able to hover around for fun. A few practical use cases mentioned were for paraplegics as well as crossing crosswalks without needing a red light. It would be very sketchy crossing a crosswalk with this hover backpack and cars moving at 40 mph below you 😂
Yeah jumping over roads isn’t a such a good idea I guess haha. But this is a good prototype they developed for testing, once they can find all the faults that doesn’t make it practical they can get on it to fix it.
This line of 'human mobility' enhancement technology is the future. For as they say, time is money. And we know that to stay apace, man needs to be able to be able to pronto be at where he needs to be, when he needs to be!
The possibilities are endless indeed. I won't be surprised if it has its own sports.
It got me wondering how you about it... What a lovely write up from you.
I love it @techchat
Failure mechanisms will be really important to consider (see Amazon self-destructing drone mechanism). Also, given how many horrible drivers there are, I'm quite sure there would be an equal proportion of horrible flyers, with much higher potential for fatality. Seems like an interesting concept but I'm not sure the added complexity/cost is worth the marginal improvement compared to available methods. Execution will be key, as always.
Great post! Congratulation guys! This is a great development. Thanks for sharing techchat. I upvote this post.
GOOD :D
Nice one is wow thanks... follow you blog and vote :)