While in Seoul over Xmas I went to the 'Connect To' Toyota cafe. Where they had the actual (or duplicate) Lexus hoverboard on display. It was pretty neat to see, and it seemed to actually be levitating and rotating in the display, as I could not see any supports, etc. I have a video, but it is too large to upload. I did find this video showing the cafe.

 

More pics from the cafe..

 

https://www.insidescience.org/blog/2...rd-gets-ground

Uses cooled superconductors. The entire skate park they demonstrated the tech in had magnets embedded in the concrete. There is most likely a similar system holding up that board in the display case.

 

Unlikely using the supercooling in the display version: (1) no vapor coming from the board, (2) would need refilling constantly. I'm assuming magnets only, but there was just too much gap between the base and the board to lift that high (~5"), although it might be possible. The compass app in my phone was going haywire.

 

Probably normal magnets just to make it hover? I assumed the tons of refilling and vapor coming out was visible in the video since it had to deal with the weight of a human on top; maybe with no load it takes way less magnetism to keep it "hovering"?

Just random guesses, who knows. Still awesome to see in person

 

Yeah I would assume without a rider, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to make it levitate with just strong magnets. Much in the same way that those levitating pen or football helmet desk ornaments work, only larger.