
Hoverboard? Still in the Future - declan
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/technology/hoverboard-still-in-the-future.html
======
unwind
It was annoying that the article said:

 _But when the 190-pound visitor stood atop the 100-pound board, one gentle
push was enough to send him spinning across the room over a cushion of air._

This is very poor writing since there is no "cushion of air" involved, the air
is not supporting the weight of the board and rider, it's a magnetic system
after all. It would probably work almost exactly the same in vacuum.

~~~
marknutter
Well, he is technically right. There _is_ air underneath it, and it could be
described as a cushion, albeit a poor one. Remember he's trying to explain it
in terms that non-technical people will understand.

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chton
Now that their kickstarter is up, people are already streaming in to back it.
I bet most of them will completely gloss over this gem of a sentence:
"Currently, this surface needs to be a non-ferromagnetic conductor."

While it does have some applications even with that limitation, it's far from
a practical hoverboard, and it's very misleading to be talking about other
uses of the technology as if it already exists. They seem to be getting ahead
of themselves by extolling their "design focus" when they don't have the
product people expect from them yet, and possibly (probably) never will.

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subb
I don't want an hoverboard. I want an hovercar. Replace roads with a sheet of
copper and put grass over it.

~~~
tormeh
I don't think you truly appreciate the price of copper. There are copper
thieves, but not asphalt ones.

~~~
lotsofmangos
I don't think you truly appreciate the ingenuity of thieves. By the way, I was
just passing and wondered if you needed your driveway paving? You see, we have
this extra load of asphalt that we didn't need on our last job...

~~~
tormeh
No, it's just that asphalt isn't worth stealing.

~~~
lotsofmangos
The driveway scam is generally done with stolen asphalt from roadway
construction. I know this from a professional con artist who has had a long
career in this kind of shenanigans.

~~~
tormeh
Yeah, that lowers cost considerably. Copper is attractive even when it needs
to be cut out of signal cables. The Norwegian railroad authority is switching
to aluminum cables in certain parts of the country to avoid it.

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yassim
Some interesting rewards in the Kickstarter.
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-
hoverbo...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-
worlds-first-real-hoverboard)

I do like the White box idea. I wonder though at the price where they start
and if thats going to eat the profit generated. (I don't know, they could be
very cheap to produce at scale.)

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eyeareque
Having non-skateboarders demonstrate their invention was a poor choice. They
seriously lack the balance needed to make this look appealing.

I hereby offer my balance, free of charge if you need someone :)

~~~
thefreeman
The thing is it operates nothing like a skateboard at this point. While
skaters would likely have better balance, the fact that there is no lateral
friction or way to control yourself means they probably wouldn't have looked
much better.

Still a cool prototype though.

~~~
eyeareque
I'm sure there would be a small learning curve but I am positive I could get
used to it. I've done other sports that do not have much lateral friction (on
water).

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sopooneo
You need resistance to sideways motion (lateral friction?) for this to work.

~~~
btbuildem
Yeah, they need to polarize the Lorentz force, then they're good to go.

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thisjepisje
[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/technology/hoverboard-
stil...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/technology/hoverboard-still-in-the-
future.html?partner=rss&emc=rss)

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pseudometa
The Verge has a better video on the device:
[http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/21/7025795/riding-hendos-
hov...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/21/7025795/riding-hendos-hoverboard-
levitation)

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mrfusion
I guess this needs to operate over a conductive surface? Would saltwater work?

~~~
ridgeguy
It does, and saltwater isn't conductive enough. The effect degrades the lower
the electrical conductivity of the medium in which eddy currents are formed.
Pretty much requires something like copper or silver (or gold!) for high
enough conductivity to make it work. A superconducting surface works great for
this.

~~~
mrfusion
How about aluminum?

~~~
FiatLuxDave
It should work, but less well. The conductivity of aluminum is more than half
that of copper, so I would expect their 100 lb board which can hold a 190 lb
person to be able to hold at least a 100 lb person.

The thickness of the metal plate also has some effect, but it is limited, and
I would expect that their plate is already thick enough for additional
thickness to not matter. I don't think that you can compensate enough for
material conductivity with thickness, but I don't have time to research that
at the moment.

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mrfusion
Does anyone know if the physics checks out? Can producing an eddy current
create a repelling force that levitates? Why hasn't anyone thought of this
before?

~~~
HCIdivision17
I think it has been 'rediscovered' many times, but it's hard to market, since
it requires a special platform to run on (even if it's just a sheet-o-metal).
Sorta like how you can build a hovercraft out of a leaf blower and some
plywood, but generally not used in every day life, despite the coolness. If we
_could_ have long, smooth sheets of copper laid out, I'd be pretty thrilled;
might need to grab an asteriod to make it cheap enough, though.

Also, nice nick; possibly the most apropos I've seen in a while :)

~~~
cLeEOGPw
Maybe in future children will play with hoverboards ON asteroid made of
copper? :D

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snarfy
Stick four or five of these on a skateboard:

[http://www.jetcatusa.com/p60.html](http://www.jetcatusa.com/p60.html)

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marknutter
I don't really get why a hoverboard would be better than a regular skateboard
anyways. It's a solution looking for a problem.

~~~
Pxtl
Because hoverboard. That's really the beginning and the end of it. It's not
supposed to be better at anything. It's a hoverboard.

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DontBeADick
I thought I just read a few months ago that we'd have superconducting EM drive
hoverboards any day now?

How disappointing...

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mrfusion
Does anyone know how built in batteries can provide enough power to support a
190 lb person?

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smlacy
Someone forgot Newton's 1st Law of Motion, and it's evident in all these
videos. In other words: It's impossible to steer a device like this .

~~~
lotsofmangos
If it is impossible to steer a device like this, explain the whitebox+ with
directional control from your smartphone that they are offering.

The thing works on repulsive eddy forces that always oppose the field you
create. If you angle the field, you should get lateral forces.

edit - thinking about it, you do not have to angle the field, you just need to
move it. Also, if you move the device it should automatically resist the
motion due to the currents created. With some accelerometers feeding back into
controlling the motion of the field, it should be even be possible to give the
device what feel like edges to make it behave like a snowboard.

