It was annoying that the article said:<p><i>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.</i><p>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.
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."<p>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.
Some interesting rewards in the Kickstarter.
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard" rel="nofollow">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverbo...</a><p>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.)
Having non-skateboarders demonstrate their invention was a poor choice. They seriously lack the balance needed to make this look appealing.<p>I hereby offer my balance, free of charge if you need someone :)
The Verge has a better video on the device: <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/21/7025795/riding-hendos-hoverboard-levitation" rel="nofollow">http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/21/7025795/riding-hendos-hov...</a>
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?
Stick four or five of these on a skateboard:<p><a href="http://www.jetcatusa.com/p60.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.jetcatusa.com/p60.html</a>
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 .