Tag Archives: magnetic levitation

A Magnetic Levitation Turntable For The Ultimate In Vibration Dampening

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The MAG-LEV Audio looks pretty badass. It’s a turntable with a magnetically levitating platter, and that alone should be the main selling point. The platter is smoothly controlled through a patented drive system that can easily switch between 33.3-rpm and 45-rpm with just a turn of a button. When you turn it off, the platter gently lowers back down onto a set of legs that pops up upon shutdown. There’s even an Uninterrupted Power Supply that will perform a smooth shutdown procedure in case of power loss, protecting your precious records and your expensive turntable as well. And we say expensive because of course the MAG-LEV Audio isn’t cheap: it’s an $880 pledge to get your own, with shipping almost a year away in September 2017.

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[ Project Page ]

OvRCharge Levitates Your Phone While It Charges

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This thing is completely unnecessary, but damn if it ain’t cool. Sort of. It’s a charging base for your smartphone that simply levitates the phone while it charges it wirelessly. It uses a special case that contains a magnet and induction charging hardware. The case plugs into your phone’s charging port, and the magnet is strong enough to support the weight of the phone above the base, which itself is plugged into the grid. The phone will slowly rotate while it charges, and when you want to leave you just have to pluck it out of thin air and go. It’s useless in the sense that you’ll have to pay for something that doesn’t give you any added functionality, but if you want to impress your friends or loudly tell your visitors that you’re an early adopter that’s into tech, the OvRCharge is the way to go. How much will you pay? Right now, it’ll take an $180 pledge to reserve yours, and hope to get it by December 2016. It’s compatible with a bunch of phone models, so hit the link to find out which.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ ThisIsWhyImBroke ]

Air Bonsai Floating Plant: Magnepiphyte

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We’ve seen small-scale magnetic levitation applied to toys and food. Hoshinchu’s Air Bonsai is another novel application of the technique, combining it with miniature plants, hand made porcelain and antique Japanese fabric to make beautiful decor.

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Air Bonsai’s floating portion is called the Little Star. It measures about 2.4″ in diameter and has a capacity of about 11oz. A sponge wrapped around its magnetic core holds bits of moss and soil as well as the plant itself. For an extra fee, you can get a small pot made of igneous rock instead of the Little Star.

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Like most maglev trinkets, Air Bonsai’s base has an electromagnet, but here it’s housed within a handmade and hand-brushed porcelain body that takes 3 months to make. Air Bonsai kits will also come with a cushion made from 19th to 20th century Japanese fabric, and no two cushions will be alike.

Pledge at least $200 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive an Air Bonsai kit as a reward. Higher pledge tiers come with a plant. However, as of this writing, Hoshinchu will ship only to Japan, the U.S. or Canada. Further, if you pledge for a kit that comes with a plant, know that the plants in the video and photos may differ significantly from the one you’ll receive. Because of export regulations, Hoshinchu can ship Japanese plants only within Japan; U.S. and Canadian orders will come with plants from their respective countries.

[via Hypebeast]

Takara Tomy Maglev Model Train: Shinkansen-chan

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It may not be as exciting as Lexus’ hoverboard, but Takara Tomy’s new Linear Liner is still pretty neat. Based on Central Japan Railway’s L0 Series trains, this model train also uses magnetic levitation to zip along its track.

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The 9.9″ long train floats 2mm above the track and has a top speed of 4.3 mph, the equivalent of 310 mph for a life-size train.

You can pre-order the Linear Liner from Hobby Link Japan for ~$290 (USD).

[via Cool Things]

Lexus Slide Hoverboard: Please Let This Be Real

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With 2015 halfway over, it seemed like we’d fail to meet Back to the Future‘s prophecy of a hoverboard. The hero of destiny, Mattel, has practically given up. And then Lexus brought this thing out.

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Now for the bad news. The Slide hoverboard works like a maglev train. In other words, it needs a magnetized surface or track in order to float. The smoke you’ll see coming out of it in the teaser below is evaporating liquid nitrogen, which is being used to cool the magnetic system inside the board. While we’ve seen a simpler version of this way back in 2010 – and again, the concept and technology are far from new – Lexus is claiming that the Slide is “rideable.”

Cool Hunting says Lexus has no plans of mass producing or selling the Slide, but it will release more information about it in the coming weeks. Don’t go breaking our hearts Lexus.

[via Cool Hunting]

Skytran Magnetically Levitating Mass Transit System: The Future is Coming to Tel Aviv

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There aren’t that many maglev trains in operation yet (one is currently operating in Shanghai, China and another is in Japan). There have been skytrains and monorails before, but this is the world’s first magnetically levitating system of mass transit, which will be built in Tel Aviv, Israel. Previous maglev trains were for intercity journeys, not urban mass transit.

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Skytran was designed to reduce urban traffic congestion. It’s supposed to be less expensive to use, faster, and more comfortable than cars or buses. The two-seater pods allow for personal transit between stations.

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Vehicles will be requested through a mobile app and are supposed to arrive almost instantly on demand.

The system was designed by engineers from NASA and Skytran. I wonder how this will scale up when tens of thousands of people try to use it every day. It kind of reminds me of the pods in Minority Report.

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[via designboom]

ZeroN slips surly bonds, re-runs your 3D gestures in mid-air

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Playback of 3D motion capture with a computer is nothing new, but how about with a solid levitating object? MIT's Media Lab has developed ZeroN, a large magnet and 3D actuator, which can fly an "interaction element" (aka ball bearing) and control its position in space. You can also bump it to and fro yourself, with everything scanned and recorded, and then have real-life, gravity-defying playback showing planetary motion or virtual cameras, for example. It might be impractical right now as a Minority Report-type object-based input device, but check the video after the break to see its awesome potential for 3D visualization.

Continue reading ZeroN slips surly bonds, re-runs your 3D gestures in mid-air

ZeroN slips surly bonds, re-runs your 3D gestures in mid-air originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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