Bored of our usual century old umbrellas? Well, our Chinese friends certainly are!

Chinese inventor Chaun Wang from Nanjing has created an air umbrella that instead of protecting actually blows away the rain and snow! 


The air umbrella resembles a hairdryer in the way it functions by blowing out air at the top to make a ‘force field’ i.e. air is drawn in from the top of the device and fired out from the sides, a prototypical device that blows rain away in a circle measuring 3 feet or more. The product is more suitable for the urban citizens or for people who own a car.

 Prices starts at $88 and it won’t be available before next year December 2015. 

The inventors have somehow managed to slim their umbrella down to less than 2 pounds but the battery life of 15 to 30 minutes still remains a problem.

With regard to its ideation procedure, one of the inventors explains:

‘One day in early 2012, I went by a building and there was water flowing down from the roof. I saw the straight water flow being bent by wind and the water that finally grounded was several meters deviating away from its original vertical position. At that point, an idea came to me that: if the wind was not blowing in one direction but blowing out from one center to all directions, such wind would shelter people from rain and it must be so cool for people to shelter from rain with such a portable airflow generator.’

The device when not in use looks like it’s a hunting gadget.

So far, the developers have already succeeded in making a working model, which is shown in this promotional video below: