Hover technology is a thing in 2015(1985) and it appears many places.
Hoverboards
When Marty has troubles with Griff Tannan he borrows a young girl’s hover scooter and breaks off its handlebar. Hes able to put his skateboarding skills to use on the resulting hover board.
Griff and his gang chases Marty on their own hover boards. Griffs has a top of the line hover board labeled a Pit Bull. Though Marty clearly has to manually supply forward momentum to his, Griffs has miniature swivel-mount jet engines that (seem to) respond to the way he shifts his weight on the board.
Hovertraction
George requires traction for a back problem, but this doesn’t ground him. A hover device clamps his ankles in place and responds to foot motions to move him around.
Hover tech is ideal for leaning control, like what controls a Segway. That’s just what seems to be working in the hoverboard and hovertraction devices. Lean in the direction you wish to travel, just like walking. No modality, just new skills to learn.
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The hover traction is father uses has a small remote control he holds, rather than Segway style lean control. You can see this in a scene slightly after the entrance.
“Lean in the direction you wish to travel, just like walking.”
Do you lean backwards when walking backwards? If so, do you fall over?
Interesting as I recently attended a dance class where the teacher was pointing out that we don’t actually ever stop leaning gently forwards when walking. We do move differently, but it’s all in the lower half of the body.
Lean to move may be less intuitive than you think 🙂