anamnesis

Back in 2006 I discussed an idea I had for a floating chair using magnets. Well, it seems like a company called Hoverit actually made one of these this year. It looks a little fancier than my DIY model: To stay competitive, however, I have since upgraded my idea. Granted it's much easier to upgrade ideas than physical products. Here's the new plan. You'll probably see someone implement in 2010 :-) Instead of static magnets, use electromagnets to modify the strength of the field dynamically. Then hook-up a simple digital signal processor circuit that modulates the intensity of the magnets, within a certain adjustable range, based on amplitude from your music (or other variables.) You can get prefab circuits that do this with only minor tweakage required. What do you get with this? Say you had a music track with beach sounds . . . you'd get the sensation of your chair being a raft floating out on the ocean waves. If it was hip-hop, well, you wouldn't have to stir y...

Incredible may be a hyperbole, but this could be really cool. When I saw the floating bed here for 1.5mil I thought why not a floating chair? It would be cheaper and easier to make, just superglue some p owerful magnets on the legs, superglue an eyehook in them and attach a short elastic cord to a similar eyehook on some magnets on the floor (to avoid drifting off the magnets.) You'll have to play with the magnet strength to adjust it for the right amount of "cush" for your weight, but it should let you wiggle around kind of like a rocking chair. Do you think it would feel floaty or would it basically be exactly like a chair with legs on the floor (other than the wiggle factor?)