Have you ever wanted a smart umbrella? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean that the smart and connected umbrella that Oombrella.Me is building isn’t going to be anything short of amazing. The ‘soon on’ Kickstarter project could change the way we not only think about umbrellas but weather itself.

Oombrella.Me wants to integrate weather alerts right into a smart gadget that will not only shield you from the bad weather but also notify you when you need to carry it along. Since Tim Cook can’t integrate a rain shield into the iPhone 6S, an Oombrella.Me is going to be the next best thing!

When it comes to weather, man is still not the master of his destiny. With changing weather patterns across the world, it’s becoming hard to predict if you’ll need an umbrella when going out, or not.

But We Have Apps For That

Yes, there are a number of great weather apps both for iOS and Android, such as AccuWeather, but most of them don’t really help if you don’t have an umbrella handy, right? Right. Personally, I have IFTTT set up so it sends me an email when the weather near the location I was last on based on my iPhone is going to be rainy – or worse. Not even that approach has saved me from getting a cold after ending up in the rain on days when I forgot my umbrella and the shops were closed!

Weather Alerts – Right in the Oombrella.Me!

Oombrella.Me will integrate weather reports right into the gadget itself, so it can send you severe weather alerts in the vicinity. The reports are based not only on the most up-to-date reports around the world, but also Ombrella.Me’s Wezzoo community. What is Wezzoo? It’s the parent company of Oombrella.Me: a community of people tagging the weather in their area, making sure that the rest of the community always has the latest community-driven weather report. Yes, there actually is a social, real-time weather community and it’s increasingly popular. Think of it like: What Waze does for traffic, Wezzoo does for weather!

But what happens when you forget your umbrella while going to a restaurant, visiting a client’s office or just your boyfriend? My girlfriend recently told me she never considered umbrellas so disposable, but as I mentioned – you can, and she and I have lost ours. Don’t worry, because Oombrella.Me already has that situation planned out and will send you an alert if you forget it. This function is based on the smart umbrella being paired with your smartphone and notifying it that it’s moved far, far… far away from its location. While umbrellas are considered disposable, they don’t have to be, especially if you have one as smart as the Ombrella.Me.

You Got .ME – Where Can I Buy It?

You can’t – at least not yet. While you can download Wezzoo’s iPhone and Android apps that we mentioned earlier, the Oombrella.Me is still in development and will take a crowdfunding approach to financing the product. What this means is that you’ll be able to help fund the project on the popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, similar to some of the .ME-powered platforms that we’ve already written about on this blog! While the creators of Oombrella.Me still haven’t shared the details, the project will certainly get a good initial push from the Wezzoo community – and .ME readers, if you like not getting wet!

Photo credit: Oombrella.Me