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Great Scott! Get a Hoverboard on Kickstarter for $10,000
On October 21, 2014 in All by Erik Smith
Erik Smith

 Today (October 21st, 2014) marks exactly one year until Doc, Marty, and Jennifer's trip to the fictional Hill Valley of 2015 in 1989's Back to the Future part II. While the now dated vision of the 21st century seemed so far away when the movie was released, Atmel points out that many of its subtler embedded technologies actually do exist today, or are on their way. But arguably the most coveted item from the Back to the Future series (besides an actual flying DeLorean or Gray's Sports Almanac) is the hoverboard.

Working hoverboards have been the subject of many hoaxes for the last few decades; Back to the Future series' director Robert Zemeckis claimed that hoverboards had existed for years, only to be banned by parents groups, to Funny of Die's elaborate and almost convincing prank earlier this year. But now, thanks to Hendo Hover's Kickstarter campaign, this long sought after technology can be in your hands... for $10,000.

Well, don't get too excited... yet. This time it's definitely not a hoax, but it's also a little too good to be true. This hoverboard works in much the same way as a Maglev train, it requires a special surface in order to work. Part of Hendo Hover's campaign will build a "hoverpark", with a specialized surface on which their hoverboards will work. They hope to improve on this technology in the future, so that the boards can work on any surface (even water!).

If you don't have the 10 grand or if your past skateboarding-related clavicle fracture has left you hesitant to jump on a hoverboard, but still want to play with the technology, don't fear! Less costly pledge levels will grant you rewards such as a reserved 5-minute ride on the hoverboard, on non-hovering replica hoverboard, a levitating hoverboard display, or most exciting to me, a Whitebox™ Developer kit, which features the hover engine and enough surface to float it on. This will allow you to not only see the Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA™) in action, but you can also open it up and repurpose the technology into anything you see fit!

 So don't be a bojo, head over to their Kickstarter page to see for yourself!



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Erik is the Social and Multi-Media Manager at Mouser Electronics. When he’s not tweeting about what’s next in the world of engineering for @MouserElec or uploading videos to YouTube, he can typically be found nose-down in a good Sci-Fi book. You can see what he’s up to on Twitter: @ErikSmith80


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Tagged With: Back to the Future, Hendo Hover, Hoverboard, Kickstarter, Maglev

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