Programmable Hoverboard
Silicon Valley robotics innovator invents programmable hoverboard for the consumer market.
Announcing the «Hoverboard,» a personal electric vehicle to be launched on Kickstarter September 17, 2015 and culminating October 21, 2015, the day Marty McFly, in Back to the Future II, traveled into the future to discover the Hoverboard. The Hoverboard is as much a «board sport» as it is a tech gadget. Serial Entrepreneur and Inventor, Robert Bigler explains, «I dreamt of a personal electric vehicle that would produce the sensation of surfing on land.» The Hoverboard is targeting the higher-end consumer market. Bigler explains, «I didn’t want to approach the first real Hoverboard from the standpoint of making it a price-product. I spared no expense to make it fully, everything today’s technology could possibly provide.»
The Hoverboard has a single, electrically motorized, 10″ diameter wheel in the center of its deck. The narrow wheel is computer-controlled and driven by as much as 5,000 watts of power to keep the rider balanced while also producing acceleration on demand. Leaning forward causes the Hoverboard to accelerate, and leaning back causes it to decelerate, or go the other direction. There are no controls to hold in your hand.
While the computer and power electronics automatically keep the Hoverboard under the rider front-to-back, the riders themselves develop the skill to balance side to side, maneuver and ultimately «carve.» The experience evolves from hovering, to fully surfing on land. The Hoverboard is equipped with onboard lighting, speakers to play music, ground-detecting sonar to keep the Hoverboard parallel to the changing ground, and LCD displays for active parameter monitoring while riding.
To absolutely maximize an owner’s personal connection to the Hoverboard, it has also been made User-Programmable by way of a simple programming language called Hoverscript. An extension of BASIC, Hoverscript is easily learned by people with no previous programming experience. This programmability eliminates all boundaries to the owner’s ability to completely personalize their own Hoverboard.
