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Rain Wipe Keeps Your Umbrella Dry

by Evan Shamoon on October 31, 2008 at 08:56 AM




Not sure if this is going to be helpful or a total flop, but a new device called Rain Wipe from Japan is being marketed to stores for display at their entrances. It essentially removes rainwater from wet umbrellas by absorbing the water with a cloth, and then uses pressure to push the water to a tray toward the bottom to keep things tidy. If you're keeping score at home, each tray only needs to be replaced after the device wipes 3,000 umbrellas dry.

The company behind it, the rather anonymously-named ANNON, claims the device is environmentally friendly and will save consumers money; it does away with the need to use plastic umbrella bags, which cost 2 to 9 yen ($0.02 to $0.10) apiece in Tokyo. Not sure how well that savings is going to fly in the rest of the world, of course, where we're nowhere neat enough to bag our umbrellas.

Check out the video. And not to be haters, but the bottom tips of the umbrellas are totally going to get caught on the way out. Just sayin' is all. [From: Wired]

Tags: big in japan, BigInJapan, weather, weird

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