X

A high-tech way to walk through rain and not get wet

Pretend your whole body is hydrophobic when you step into the RainRoom, a room full of falling water that falls everywhere except on you.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
RainRoom
Singing in the non-rain. Random International

The eternal debate about whether running or walking through rain gets you wetter has now become a moot point. An art and technology installation in London lets you make your way through rain without getting wet at all.

You don't need an umbrella or a Gore-Tex suit to achieve this feat. You just need to make sure you're visiting Random International's RainRoom.

The installation takes up 330 square feet of space, giving you ample room to roam in the rain. It consists of a grated floor to catch the water and a hydraulic system with solenoid valves and pressure regulators. Custom software and 3D tracking cameras watch where people are stepping and turn off the rain drops accordingly.

There's a bit of an X-Men element to this. Imagine if your mutant superpower was controlling the rain. Step into the RainRoom and you can pretend to be a less versatile version of Storm. You'll just have to provide your own skin-tight black leather suit.

The RainRoom is open for visitors until March 3, 2013 at The Curve art exhibition space at the Barbican.

RainRoom
Just in case London needed more rain than it already has. Random International

(Via Designboom)