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May 10, 2006
The umbrella goes high-tech
Maybe it's just the fact that the weather forecast for the New York area looks so dismal for the next few days, but I've been particularly attuned to something that, for lack of a better word, I'll call umbrella innovation. How can you take a simple product like the umbrella and use it as the basis for a breakthrough, game-changing innovation? Don't even tell me about umbrellas that won't invert in a wind gust - these don't exist, trust me. And whatever you do, don't mention the whimsical pet umbrella. That being said, in the course of the past few days, I've stumbled on two new high-tech umbrellas that are quite fascinating.
For example, there's the Wi-Fi umbrella profiled on Engadget:
"The premise is pretty simple, the umbrella handle has an LED that glows based on the likelihood of precipitation, so instead of taking the 30 seconds necessary to look up the weather on the Internet, or sticking your head out of a window, you can just glance at your umbrella on the way out. Sounds a lot like Ambient's Weather Forecasting Umbrella, but beyond looking just plain snazzier, this version pulls all its information off of your Internet via WiFi. It really sounds like quite the functional use of usually superfluous technology..."
Then, there's the My Day Paper Electronic Paper Umbrella - not quite as useful as the Wi-Fi umbrella - that was mentioned on the Trend Hunter blog:
"Designed by Hsiao Yong-li, the My Day Electronic Paper Umbrella allows you to select which image you want to project / display on the surface. Use one of the six themes provided or download different images from the internet. This is definitely an innovative use of e-paper technology!"
Anyway, a quick Google search for "umbrella innovation" turns up nearly 6 million entries, so this is obviously a problem that has gotten a lot of attention over the years. For example, I found a Bluetooth Umbrella Network, the Bright Night Illuminated Umbrella, and a site that traces the evolution of the umbrella back to the 16th century.
Tags: umbrella innovation
Posted by dominic at May 10, 2006 10:20 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig
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