The Japanese love for seemingly wack inventions never ceases to amuse me. Make way for the internet-embedded umbrella designed presumably to keep you entertained while you wait for the night bus in the drizzling cold. Just make sure you don’t get mugged for it in that case — you’ll have a hard time convincing police that a bunch of guys beat you down for your umbrella..
Tokyo, Japan (AHN) – Japanese researchers have developed a unique hi-tech umbrella named “Pileus” which is Internet ready, has an integrated digital camera, built-in Wi-Fi plus an attached video projector.
Developed at the Okude laboratory in Tokyo’s Keio University, the digitized umbrella can capture both still images and video and can automatically upload them to Flickr and YouTube respectively.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the mechanism can also project previously uploaded images above the user’s head on the inside of the umbrella.
For this hi-fi umbrella to work efficiently the user must be within range of a wireless Internet hotspot, so that it can capture the signal before he/she can access the photo- and video-sharing websites.
The umbrella’s grip can be twisted to scroll through the Flickr photo sets and YouTube videos.
