Canadian Hover Board

October 21, 2015 is the date that Marty McFly borrows a hover board to escape the bullies that are chasing him in the movie "Back to the Future II". He steers the board over the water, only to discover that it doesn't work over water. The real future has finally caught up with Mr. McFly, but the real hover boards are not quite there yet.

A young Canadian inventor has come up with a prototype hover board invention that works over land and water and skims along very much like Marty's. Catalin Alexandru Duru's propeller-driven hover board was recently demonstrated for the Guinness World Records. He managed a total distance of 275.9 metres (905 feet) achieving a new world record title for the farthest hover board flight, easily beating the old record of 50 feet. Duru's invention was featured on Tuesday night's CBC National News. The image of a man flying on a hover board revived the dreams I had of owning one like Marty McFly's.

I'm sure it had the same impact on many viewers and, based on the worldwide reaction to his test flights and the Guinness World Record, I have no doubt that the first production models will sell like hot cakes once all the bugs are worked out.

It's amazing how science fiction movies have previewed some of the products we use today. Here are a few examples I can list of just off the top of my head:

• Mobile flip phones were originally envisioned as the communicator in the original Star Trek TV series (1966 to 1969)
• Voice activated computers, now a reality with virtual agents like Apple's Siri made their debut with the Hal computer in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). They were also also prominently evident in the "Back to the Future II".
• Anatomically correct female robots have been around for decades in the movies, but my favorites are the fembots in "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" (1997).

While it's exciting to get a glimpse into our futures, we also have to remember that sometimes these envisioned advances never come to fruition. For example the concept of a flying car, seen in many popular movies including "Back to the Future II", has been around for over a century, but all we've seen so far in reality have been prototypes. In most cases these vehicles were actually planes with folding wings that just barely fit an automobile footprint - hardly the Star Wars landspeeder that I'd certainly like to own.

But having this technology begs the question about the safety of others around the rider(s). Currently daredevil skateboards are the villains that sidewalk pedestrians love to hate. But imagine hover boards that could also travel over grass or water. Suddenly hover-boarders would become hazards to picnickers in a park and even to boaters. Regulation won't stop those who are looking for new thrills. We need only to look at the hazards being created by owners of the new hobby drones for examples of how people will ignore regulation and use their "toys" for unintended purposes. In one recent report in the Washington Post, the reporter noted: "drones have smuggled drugs into an Ohio prison, smashed against a Cincinnati skyscraper, impeded efforts to fight wildfires in California and nearly collided with three airliners over New York City".

We'll have to wait to see if other imagined technologies ever comes to fruition, but for hover board aficionados, perhaps the wait won't be much longer. One day, the streets may be crowded with hover board riders zooming past pedestrians the way that skateboarders do today, and we'll wonder how we'll be able to regulate and control this growing safety menace.

Works Cited

"Back to the Future II: Hoverboard Scene" Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ZdMOMUgXE>.

"Back to the Future II". Wikipedia. Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_Part_II>.

Lynch, Kevin. "Video: Watch incredible footage of farthest flight by a hoverboard record set by Canada's Catalin Alexandru Duru”. On line video clip. Guinness World Records. Guinness World Records. 22 May 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/5/video-watch-incredible-footage-of-farthest-flight-by-a-hoverboard-record-set-by-379420>.

"Communicator (Star Trek)”. Wikipedia . Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 14-OCT-2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicator_(Star_Trek)>.

"Star Trek: The Original Series". Wikipedia . Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 14-OCT-2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series>.

"Apple iOS 9 – Siri. Your wish is my command". Apple iOS 9. Siri.Web. n.d. Web. 14-OCT-2015. <http://www.apple.com/ca/ios/siri>.

"2001: A Space Odyssey". Wikipedia . Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 14-OCT-2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)>.

"Austin Powers Fembots". Online video clip. Youtube. YouTube. 03 Mar. 2007. Web. 14-OCT-2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTv9AhCuSU4>.

"A Brief History of the Flying Car". Online slide show. Popular Mechnics. Popular Mechanics. n.d. Web. 18-OCT-2015. <http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/how-to/g1038/a-brief-history-of-the-flying-car>.

"Landspeeder". Wikipedia . Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 14-OCT-2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landspeeder>.

Whitlock, Craig. "Rogue Drones: A Growing Menace Across the USA". The Washington Post. National Security. n.d. 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 18-OCT-2015. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-rogue-drones-are-rapidly-becoming-a-national-nuisance/2015/08/10/9c05d63c-3f61-11e5-8d45-d815146f81fa_story.html/.