Tech company Arx Pax chose Oct. 21 as the date to reveal its updated Hendo Hoverboard, as in the iconic "Back To The Future" movie franchise, this is the day that Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to in the future for the second movie.
The hoverboard was one of the futuristic devices that was featured in the "Back To The Future" films. While the Hendo Hoverboard is not yet at the level of the fictional hoverboard of Marty McFly, it is at least on the right direction.
According to Arx Pax, the updated Hendo Hoverboard is quitter, sleeker and more energy efficient compared to the original prototype, which was able to raise funding of over $500,000 through its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign last year.
The Hendo 2.0 prototype was the product of a collaboration between Arx Pax and legendary professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. The updated hoverboard will be made available to the original supporters of the project on Kickstarter, and it would be the better version to choose compared to the first prototype. Hendo 2.0 has a more traditional deck in the style of a skateboard, a longer battery life, USB connectivity and simpler controls.
"Our second-generation hover engines, which power Hendo 2.0, are stronger, more efficient, and open up new possibilities for the way we transport objects and people," said Arx Pax co-founder Jill Henderson in a statement.
Henderson added that while wearable technology has been making waves, it might be time for the tech industry to begin thinking about moveable technology.
The design of the Hendo Hoverboard relies on magnetic field architecture that was initially proposed by Greg Henderson, the CEO and also a co-founder of Arx Pax. Henderson, an architect, first foresaw using the technology as an emergency means to lift buildings above land during situations such as earthquakes and floods.
The Hendo Hoverboard has electromagnets at its base to release changing magnetic fields. This generates electric currents on metallic surfaces, with these surfaces in turn creating magnetic fields which repel the board and cause it and the rider to hover.
This is also the limitation of the Hendo Hoverboard as it currently is now. It needs metallic surfaces, such as copper-coated ramps, to be able to hover. Such a limitation makes it still a far cry from "Back To The Future's" hoverboard, but at least it is on the right track in developing the technology.
