Light Start – BTTF: Hendo hoverboard, drifting DeLorean, Nike’s power-laces and more
Brett Venter
Hendo has a new hoverboard design in the works
You might remember the Hendo hoverboard, one of the very first working designs we’ve seen for this elusive technology. The problem was that it didn’t work all that well. But fear not, Hendo have got a whole new design in the works, one which could allow for actual manoeuvrability, with design input by none other than the Birdman, Tony Hawk himself. There’s an improved battery on the way, as well as connectivity features and the ability to maybe turn the damned thing. Either way, it’s bound to be better than the recent Activision game… We should be seeing the revamped Hendo soon. It’ll still set you back over $10,000 though.
Stanford have made a DeLorean that drifts by itself
The video above (newsletter viewers, hit the website or the source link below) shows MARTY, which stands for Multiple Actuator Research Test bed for Yaw control. MARTY is a DeLorean and what with all the Back To The Future madness yesterday, this is a good time to meet him. Stanford researchers have given MARTY a bunch of upgrades, like improved steering and a few more impressive bits (like autonomous driving). They use MARTY to try and teach cars how to drift, since that could possibly be a safety feature in autonomous cars – or a reason to enter the Japanese market. How’d they do? Watch the video to find out.
Promises, promises: Nike’s power-lacing Nike Mags are coming next year
We’ve been hearing for ages that Nike would finally be bringing Back to the Future‘s power-lacing tech to the Nike Mag. Nike brought an edition of the shoe out previously, minus the self-lacing, but the power-lacing… that’s been quite elusive. But they’ll be around in 2016. Actually they’re around right now, with Nike delivered a pair of the self-lacing Mags to BttF star Michael J. Fox yesterday. The others, a very limited run, will only be available via auction, with said auction taking place in 2016. Proceeds will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Sony and Nintendo get in on Back To The Future Day
Everybody wants a piece of the film that predicted what the world would look like on a very specific day – 21 October 2015, in fact. Even games companies, with Nintendo reissuing an old game briefly seen on the day in question to the Wii U’s virtual console. That’s right, you can get your hands on Wild Gunmen once again. And then Sony’s LittleBigPlanet 3 has also gotten into the act, releasing a level pack for the platform game featuring the characters from the movie trilogy, as well as a hoverboard powerup. It looks, in the trailer above, awesome.
It can’t all be BttF – Here’s how you can print your own Kylo Ren helmet
From the future to space, and with Star Wars: The Force Awakens right around the corner, we can expect to see a lot more 3D printing files turning up. Like this Kylo Ren helmet, the creation of one Luke Daley. The design process took over 100 hours and Daley made a bunch of them, which sold out almost instantly. So now he’s decided to give it to the world. No, really. If you head over to MyMiniFactory, you can download the helmet design and print your very own. Assuming you have a 3D printer, that is. Now where did we leave ours…
