Rolf Hut from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has come up with a smart umbrella technology prototype that can measure rainfall and transmit the data to a weather tracking computer system. There is a sensor attached to the umbrella that detects the raindrops falling on its surface, and can accurately gauge the amount of rainfall.

Rolf Hut from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has come up with a smart umbrella technology prototype that can measure rainfall and transmit the data to a weather tracking computer system.

There is a sensor attached to the umbrella that detects the raindrops falling on its surface, and can gauge the amount of rainfall. Early tests have shown promising results.

Researchers think that if this technology is embraced by the public on a large scale, then it would be possible to crowdsource information about rainfall through Bluetooth and smartphone app technology, which would be used to upload the data into cloud storage.

Hut is quoted as saying: “We would then have hundreds of rain gauges moving along a cityscape and that could greatly improve our ability to understand urban hydrology; it would greatly improve our ability to predict urban flooding and take measures when things are going bad.”

Because maintaining precisely calibrated scientific rain gauges is expensive, much of the weather data is currently gathered from radar and satellites, but that still leaves a need for accurate ground data.

The prototype design for the smart umbrella is being presented at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, Austria.