An invisible umbrella could change the way we travel in the rain by the end of next year.
The new product, that is still in its development phase, is called Air Umbrella. It works by blowing air out the top of the device so strong that it pushes the rain in another direction creating a force-field of air above the user's head.
The Air Umbrella was funded through a Kickstarter campaign. With nine days left of the fundraiser, the China-based company already bypassed their goal of raising $10,000. At the time this article was posted, the company was backed by 167 people and raised $18,211.
A sample of the Air Umbrella was completed in July 2014, according to the Kickstarter campaign for the product, which is the product used in advertisements.
There are three versions of the Air Umbrella being developed: umbrella-a, which is smaller and designed for females; umbrella-b, which is a basic style; and umbrella-c, which can be extended to be much longer than the first two.
The company plans to release the product in December 2015.
Others have conceptualized umbrellas similar to the Air Umbrella in the past, but none have actually been produced that significantly differed from the original umbrella invention 3,000 years ago, CNET reports.
In 2010, a Korean designer released an air umbrella concept, that resembled the Air Umbrella currently in production, but there is no evidence that it was ever produced, according to CNET.
