WATCH: This is the umbrella of the future

Published October 14, 2014 1:31pm

A startup is now trying to raise funds via Kickstarter to manufacture an "invisible umbrella" that shoots up a jet of air and protects its owner from the rain.

"To design a better looking product, we cooperated with a few PhD graduates from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to improve the design.

After a year’s hard work, we finally improved the appearance of the umbrella which may influence the effect. But at least, we could really use it outdoor on rainy days," the project creators said.

While this is not the first such design, earlier versions that came out as early as 2010 have yet to appear in stores.

The researchers continued to improve on it, and have so far come up with a 50-cm umbrella whose battery can last about 30 minutes.

Another variant is scalable, about 50 centimeters when shortened and 80 centimeters when extended. It has a battery life of about 30 minutes.

The researchers plan to improve the products between October 2014 and July 2015, then ship the products to stores before December 2015. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

Tags: umbrella, kickstarter