Now, humanity has harnessed the awesome power of drones and created the most advanced parasol to date: Free Parasol.
That’s “Free” in the sense of freedom. These 150-centimeter (59-inch) wide things are hardly free of charge and are expected to cost 30,000 yen (US$275) a piece.However, each one is equipped with AI software that can detect the top of your head and lock on to it, providing dedicated shade on those hot and sunny days.
The prototype in the video weighs about five kilograms (11 pounds) and can fly for about 20 minutes on a single charge. However, it is planned to bring Free Parasol down to one kilo (two pounds) and give it a flight time of one hour by the time it hits the market in 2019.
In addition to freeing up your hands so you can play the bagpipes or crash cymbals as you walk about, the drone propellers’ downwash also provides a soothing breeze on those especially muggy days. Those same propellers will be caged to prevent injury in the seemingly likely event that they bump into people’s heads.
As the technology improves, the makers at Asahi Power Service hope to waterproof them so they can be used as umbrellas in the rain as well. They probably have to make those engines pretty strong to compensate for the winds, or else we’re going to be seeing a lot of lost Free Parasols aimlessly wandering the streets of Japan in the future.
Source: Sora News 24
Noisy device. Not sure that the shade control is worth the added noise which is transmitted directly on top of any user, or the overhead hazard in the event that the UAV fails. Niel