Remember Marty McFly's groovy "hoverboard," the levitating skateboard which Michael J. Fox used to go around the city in the trilogy movie "Back To The Future"?
Arx Pax, a company from Los Gatos, California, was able to turn the 25-year-old fictional gadget into reality, with its release of HENDO hover engine, the hoverboard that floats above the floor using magnetic levitation (maglev).
The concept of the product goes like this, according to news site The Guardian:
The board will hover about 3cm off the ground carrying up to 140kg (about two people) for around 15 minutes. It uses a strong magnetic field to repulse a ground-based material and float in the same way maglev trains operate. That means that Hendo will only float over floors made of non-ferrous metals such as copper or aluminium; this is no skateboard for flying down to the local supermarket, or around the town square hooked to the back of a pickup truck.
During their research, Arx Pax discovered a way to transmit electromagnetic technology that is far more efficient than anything else. This means that the patent-pending Hendo Hover Engine technology can enable platforms to hover over non-ferrous materials with payloads of virtually any size and weight. HENDO could be used to move heavy loads around inside warehouses without friction, the company added.
The Hendo has no form of forceful propulsion at the moment, and so drifts across surfaces. But it is possible to generate a gentle bias towards one direction or another using the magnetic fields generated beneath the board using touch-sensitive plates under foot. They allow rotating the board, but moving forward still needs a push off something a bit more solid.
The company is looking for $250,000 in funding to refine the working technology from the prototype and start production. Pledges start at $5 with $299 buying a developer kit but those looking for a working Hendo board will have to shell out $10,000.
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