We’ve got supercomputers in our pockets, reusable orbital rockets, neural interfaces, and instantaneous global communication, but we still have to hold an umbrella over our heads when it rains? Seriously? Well, okay, we could all use flying umbrellas. But computer vision algorithms, flight controllers, and drones might be a little bit more than your average person is willing to deal with just to stay dry. I guess we’ll just have to hold umbrellas in our hands like people of the Stone Age who just discovered “stick and leaf” technology.
Not so fast, says YouTuber Current Concept. He has built a new kind of umbrella that pops out of a backpack to keep your hands free and your head dry. You don’t even have to open the umbrella yourself — when it detects raindrops, it pops open automatically.
Testing the rain sensor (📷: Current Concept)
The project was built around an ESP32 microcontroller that monitors a resistive rain sensor mounted to the canopy of an umbrella. The sensor is little more than exposed copper traces on a circuit board, but when raindrops bridge them, the electrical resistance changes, signaling the system to act.
Instead of modifying the umbrella internally, Current Concept engineered around it. A servo-driven cam acts as a mechanical thumb, physically pressing the umbrella’s own deploy button. Another servo controls a custom clutch mechanism attached to a rope spool, while a third tilts the umbrella away from the user’s head as it emerges from the backpack. The entire assembly rides upward on a sliding carriage before the canopy expands overhead, preventing accidental collisions with the wearer.
A servo deploys the umbrella (📷: Current Concept)
Closing the umbrella was far more difficult than opening it. Automatic umbrellas rely on powerful springs, and compressing one requires significant force — far beyond what small hobby motors can handle. The solution was a high-torque motor paired with a worm gearbox, which provides massive mechanical advantage and prevents back-driving. A length of quarter-inch Dyneema rope, rated to hold over a thousand pounds, reels the canopy downward. When fully closed, a limit switch cuts the motor, resetting the system.
When the rain stops and the sensor dries, the umbrella quietly retracts into the backpack, where it waits for the next shower. It may not be a hovering AI rain shield, but it’s an interesting and almost practical blend of mechanical engineering and embedded electronics. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference, like not having to hold on to your umbrella in a storm.
