Flyte Levitating Wireless Light Bulb

It has often been observed throughout history that what is at one time seen as magic later turns out to have more scientific foundations. If Flyte had been unveiled 500 years ago Simon Morris might have been burnt at the stake, but hopefully the world is ready for levitating light bulbs.

There is something delightfully absurd about Flyte, in the same sense as some of the bizarre concepts in Douglas Adam’s ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, pushing the evolution of a piece of technology to its illogical conclusion.

Embedded within the wooden base of Flyte is a series of electromagnets which are capable of levitating the lightbulb in a steady state. In the event of a power-cut the magnets will stop working, but the lightbulb should land safely on the pad, and also features a shatterproof shell just incase.

A wireless power transmitter also invisibly interacts with the bulb, and provides electricity to the bulb through induction. The lightbulb is intended to resemble a traditional Edison bulb, but actually instead features a cluster of LED’s for a longer lifespan (50,000 hours) and increased energy efficiency.

Flyte is currently raising funds through Kickstarter and has already smashed its $80,000 target. The campaign has so far reached $444,000 with 16 days left to go and although all the early bird special are gone, you can still preorder a Flyte of your own.

While a Flyte light isn’t exactly cheap at $249 (£165 / €230), it does come at surprisingly modest price for something so audaciously unnecessary. Indeed, the technology behind this levitating lightbulb is wholly superfluous, which is what makes Flyte so great. It’s a curiosity, a conversation piece, and of course its also obviously a fairly functional lamp.

Furthermore the wooden base over which the Flyte lightbulb levitates can also serve as a wireless charging platform for equipped smartphones (much in the same way as Ikea’s new wireless charging furniture).