An irritation-free razor that gives a close shave has been a dream for thousands of years. [Gillette] came close, and with multiple blades came even closer, but all razors today are still just sharpened steel dragged across the skin. This is the 21st century, and of course there’s a concept for a laser razor pandering for your moola. We recently covered the Skarp laser razor and its Kickstarter campaign, and today the campaign has been shut down.
The email sent out to all contributors to the Skarp campaign follows:
Hello,
This is a message from Kickstarter’s Integrity team. We’re writing to notify you that the Skarp Laser Razor project has been suspended, and your pledge has been canceled.
After requesting and reviewing additional material from the creator of the project, we’ve concluded that it is in violation of our rule requiring working prototypes of physical products that are offered as rewards. Accordingly, all funding has been stopped and backers will not be charged for their pledges. No further action is required on your part. Suspensions cannot be undone.
We take the integrity of the Kickstarter system very seriously. We only suspend projects when we find evidence that our rules are being violated.
Regards, Kickstarter Integrity Team
It only took eight hours for the Skarp team to relaunch their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. As of this writing, over 900 people (ostensibly from the 20,000 backers of the original Kickstarter campaign) have pledged to the new campaign.
Although we will never know exactly why Kickstarter suspended the original Skarp campaign, the reason given by the Kickstarter Integrity Team points to the lack of a working prototype, one of the requirements for technology campaigns on Kickstarter. Interestingly, Skarp did post a few videos of their razor working. These videos were white balanced poorly enough to look like they were filmed through green cellophane, a technique some have claimed was used to hide the actual mechanism behind the prototype’s method of cutting hair. A few commenters on the Skarp Kickstarter campaign – and here on Hackaday – have guessed the Skarp prototype does not use lasers, but instead a heated length of nichrome wire. While this would burn hair off, the color of the wire would be a dull red when filmed in any normal lighting conditions. It is assumed the poor quality of the Skarp prototype videos is an attempt to hide the fact they do not have a working prototype.
Skarp’s move to Indiegogo has been lauded by some – mostly in the comments section of the Indiegogo campaign – and has been derided on every other forum on the Internet. Indiegogo is commonly seen as the last refuge of crowdfunding scam artist, but there are a few legitimate reasons why a campaign would choose to go to Indiegogo. Kickstarter is not available for campaign founders in all countries, and for some, debiting a card immediately, instead of after the campaign end like Kickstarter does, is a legitimate crowdfunding strategy.
But for a crowdfunding campaign to be suspended on Kickstarter and immediately move to Indiegogo? This almost never ends well. One of the most famous examples, the Anonabox, had its Kickstarter campaign suspended after it was found the creator was simply rebadging an off-the-shelf router. The Anonabox then moved over to Indiegogo where it raised over $80,000. Already the campaign for the Skarp Laser Razor has raised $135,000 USD from Indiegogo, after having its Kickstarter campaign raised over $4 Million. No, Skarp won’t be one of the most successful technology Kickstarter campaigns of all time. We can only hope it won’t be one of Indiegogo’s most successful campaigns.
Obviously KS got twitchy that they could face some liability when it went tits-up due to the large sum involved, as they clearly don’t give a toss about the prototype rule as it had been running for a while before they “noticed”.
And how exactly did this one get through : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649613507/the-self-re-charging-ups-12-kw-max-timeless-autono?ref=category_newest
Don’t forget the Holus, who used photorealistic renderings (breaking another KS rule) showing something that was impossible with the device they had planned, then quietly replaced those shots in their video when they were called on it.
That’s laughable. Honestly, I’d love to see how many fools they get to sign up for this. His claimed antenna array using meta-metal junctions at 30mW a piece is something out of a fairy tale. I bet the whole thing is powered from unobtainium-core, graphene-ion hyper capacitors.
I just reported it. That was quite a laughable project.
I suspect kickstarter mostly uses the honor system for projects; depending on the creators to be honest when initializing the project.
They probably sample a subset of all new projects, and maybe a weekly sample of existing projects; and depend on the community to flag the rest.
It’s what I’d do.
TL;DR: if you think a project is violating the KS terms, report it.
I report them, but “free energy” type scams don’t seem to ever get removed. Alibaba resales are reliably taken down, though. Which creates the funny situation where they’ll let you crowdfund something that is literally impossible, but kick you out because something already exists.
I suspect that’s because most of the free energy scams, this one included, don’t have the slightest chance of reaching their funding goals. It still doesn’t do much for Kickstarter’s good name, though.
If it’s using antennas it’s not technically “free energy”, which generally means free for everyone involved, not harvesting radio waves other people have paid for. Almost always based on the chronic misunderstanding of magnets. In fact they should take an hour or so teaching magnetic perpetual-motion machines in school science lessons. Just to reduce the idiocy on the Internet it’d be worth it, never mind saving the odd poor sap from sending off for plans and spending his weekends trying to get a wheel full of magnets to spin.
Sure they teach the laws of thermodynamics, but that’s long-words complicated stuff. The idiots who believe in magnet-power operate on a much simpler level, “magnet = spooky force that makes shit move”.
Using antennas, it’s something that works in theory, except with 0.0000…01 percent of the efficiency claimed.
I’m calling it “free energy” because he’s claiming 140W output from a wifi source 10 meters away. Your typical wifi router doesn’t even require 140W of input power, so he’s clearly making overunity claims.
The “honour system” is fine for selling fruit from a roadside stand. As far as real amounts of money, though, you’re practically begging the dishonourable to come along and exploit it.
I think if you read the response from kickstarter carefully it is not that they require a working prototype of the end product but “requiring working prototypes of physical products that are offered as rewards”. So because the final product was offered as a reward and kickstarter didn’t think that it exist that is what violated the rules. They could have offered something like a very expensive paper voucher or Keychain that could be exchanged for the end product when it is released and that would have satisfied the requirement.
Exactly. This is why the Free Energy ones usually use plans, books, shirts, etc as rewards.
Yeah, I did a Kickstarter and they asked me for a video of a working prototype BEFORE they’d let me upload. They ONLY do that when they think something can’t make it big. It’s all about the money.
Cancelled kickstarters happen when they realize the “free pass” to some scam that can make it big will come back to bite them.
All members including some buildin laser cutting machines worth over 100,000€ say its an obvious fake, a laser able of cutting hair would cut wood, skin and any other non metallic material, you cant get a slim focus over the whole lengh of the razor its breaking physics, aöso a laser able to cut a whole face in a minute would need a heatsink of at lest 50 watts using laser diodes
I don’t think anyone here will be surprised by this news at all.
Indeed.
Pleasantly surprised. I thought it wasn’t going to be cancelled, Kickstarter would have gotten a nice chunk of cash from this regardless of whatever failures happened later. I guess Kickstarter has survived long enough to understand that when handling other people’s money, the appearance of integrity is the top priority.
Exactly: appearance. Because they have no integrity whatsoever.
“Making thousands won’t be much harder than making hundreds.” — Skarp Technologies, Indiegogo comments, October 2015.
Anyone that says that does not have a clue about scaleability.
Although it sounds like getting to the “making one” stage is still a ways away.
Either incrediably naive, or they are planning on spending the $ on a more refined proof of concept, then seeking real VC…
Nothing adds up, from their $ amount to their claims of product development stage to their videos to their insistence that the device will work as well as a normal razor despite never having seen this themselves.
Somewhere along the line one of these people investigated the story-arc of a failed mega-kickstarter and realized it can be milked for cash if you feel you and your reputation can weather the storm.
If you create a paper trail showing you spent $ on the development, but failed, you are essentially off the hook.. SEC isnt involved because it simply is not a real investment situation.
Or just obtain a fake ID, make fake bank account, prepare fake campaign with pimped-up videos, collect all that money and disappear. Sites like Kickstarter make running scams absurdly easy. And by the power of Internet you can run these scams across the globe making any investigation too hard and too expensive.
True, though in this case the founder is legit and has some 20+ patents, some in the laser hair removal field.
One thing I have learned by now: you cannot assume someone with a good reputation wont do something like this.. The risk might seem low to them compared to the reward.
Idealism to the point of delusion is also possible – though I often wonder if people are being honest with themselves about their own intentions when the outcome is them walking away with other people’s money.
One thing I will call certain, there was no chance in hell these people would deliver within a year of the funding arriving – they are totally out of their minds if they thought they are 4 months from manufacturing, 6 from completion.
It is such an absurd claim from 4 people involved for decades in product development that I can only call it a lie.
Reputations are disposable on the Internet. Especially if nobody knows where you live.
I’d do it myself, make enough money to retire nicely, except I’m honest, and not good at lying or dreaming up schemes. For some people it’s second nature. Psychopaths are one group.
I contributed $150 to the Mu Optics Thermal Camera campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mu-thermal-camera-a-great-tool-to-save-on-energy-costs#/
I realize now not to fund a startup like this; they did make (a little) progress but were never able to deliver. Fortunately, they did refund my money before they ran out of theirs. Many others were not so fortunate.
Oh man, when hackaday shined a light on them, I was compelled to watch their updates. I wanted to believe, but they were clearly incompetent. No demo video despite ‘update’ after ‘update’ stating that they had one. Then after obtaining the money they couldn’t share details due to ‘NDA’s with their ‘real’ investor. IGG needs to set up rules against that. That was a wild ride to watch. Glad you got your money back man.
So here’s what baffles me the most. The “inventor” of this device is somehow the inventor or an important person in IPL technology. So he must have TONS of money from licensing fees and what not.
Also: they’re the inventors of IPL. They must have crazy access to investors. If their Idea is so amazing: why crowdfund? It’s not like they’re fresh out of college, got a great Idea but no means to make it happen?
Because they can, it’s free PR, and it reduces risk.
Exactly. Just like crowdfunding when you have funding and are about to manufacture an already finished product. It’s a ton of pre-sales, free PR and so on.
My investment guy uses the term “other people’s money”.
I work for Anonabox and we are shipping product everyday. We just partnered with Ingram Micro for mass distribution and HMA! VPN pro services to provide Tor and VPN services in the same device. Just launched three new products last week. We listened to our critics and users and have worked very hard on these new devices. With the Anonabox PRO you can use Tor and VPN separately (3rd parties recognized as well) or even tunnel Tor through VPN for an extra layer of encryption.
Why do you sound like you’re trying to sell your product here?
I’m not. I’m just stating that a product that has been kicked off Kickstarter has actually made it to market and succeeding. Kickstarter is bullied by Internet warriors often to getting legit products kicked off.
Dat re-sell doe.
“Kickstarter is bullied by Internet warriors often to getting legit products kicked off.”
Telling people it’s custom made hardware while that isn’t the case is dishonest and is bad for your credibility.
On a crowdfunding platform people INVEST in your product based on how much they want it and how much they TRUST you. Lack of trust creates suspicion that your product will not live up to expectations or won’t be delivered at all.
It’s your own fault you got suspended on kickstarter, don’t blame it on the ‘Internet warriors’.
Because it was mentioned in the blurb above.
HMA doesn’t take privacy seriously. I wouldn’t use that as selling point.
To be honest I don’t think HAD can talk they still believe the whole Ahmed clock story and never posted a retraction after Ahmed was found to be a Liar and a hoaxer, However if it makes HAD feel any better they can still callothers out for their idiocracy.
Ahmed clock = emperor’s new clothes in so many ways.
It wasn’t a bomb hoax. Everyone was able to tell there weren’t any explosives, nor was there any reason to believe it was meant to perpetrate a hoax. We shouldn’t be letting idiots determine such standards.
You want to call people on their lies, fine, but make sure you’re not doing it from a biased viewpoint.
You seem to be responding to someone besides me.
The clock was set to go off during class – requiring the thing to be plugged in.
Besides that isnt the point of my statements – my statements attempt to show that the narrative being shoveled is false.
Then stop shoveling it. How could a clock that needed to be plugged in go off during class.
and please, no excuses from fox news or stormfront.
I am not a right winger. I have no negative feelings for muslims. I think that Ahmed brought the thing to school to mildly prank his classmates and teachers – he knew only an idiot would think it is a bomb, and that is true – it is visibly not a bomb.
The alarm clocks of that type, and I had a few, generally do not work on battery backup. The battery is to avoid brownouts and intermittent power failure causing the clock to reset. Very few plug in alarm clocks sound when powered only by 9v. I made the mistake myself with a different radio. I also recently, sigh, googled it and read a few forum posts and many people are asking why their 9v backup does not make the alarm work. There are also some reports of clocks that the 9v does sound the alarm. Ive digressed!
The following is just to illustrate something to you:
I am not a fox news watcher and certainly not a storm fronter. I am what could simply be called a ‘leftist activist'(lapsed to just leftist). I have taken part in actual political activism supporting liberal causes. I appreciate political correctness, my coworkers from abroad, and the idea of a supportive state that includes pensions, welfare, education funding, and healthcare.
I watch aghast as our media ignores the real protests against real issues – 10s of thousands of people went to jail protesting the iraq war, and only the most tepid media coverage of it came forth. Our media is not something to watch credulously. We must be vigilant in our beliefs, or eventual positive change is not possible.
I personally have specific respect for public school teachers and administrators. There are bad apples there, but they are a small % and I think this kid smeared these people. The towns mayor is a different story.
Why care then? you might still ask – Well it is because I think we should give massive funding and tons of tech toys to lots of high school kids – but no – instead some rich kid pulling a hoax gets showered with praise – then goes on tv holding a soldering iron overhand while talking outlandish techno babble, remedial at that.
Further I support his father going to stand up to that creep in florida. Someone had to!
even Ahmed confessed in an interview that is all over youtube about how he knew it looked suspicious before he brought it to his classes. why would he admit that if there was nothing to be suspicious about?
[Citation Needed], especially given even the Irving chief of police ackknowledges Ahmed never acted in a way to encourage people to believe it was anything other than a clock: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/18/1422554/-Irvine-Police-Chief-Admits-Cops-Knew-Ahmed-Mohamed-Didn-t-Have-a-Bomb#
Also:
1) Saying “you knew something might appear suspicious, therefore it’s your fault if people overreact to it” is a classic example of a chilling effect, which artificially restricts peoples’ freedom of expression by putting the responsibility for an overreaction on the victim (or potential vicitm) rather than the people who are overreacting.
2) None of this excuses arresting and questioning a minor without parents, guardians, or legal counsel.
What part was a lie and a hoax? All the arresting bits looked legit.
1) He didnt build a clock, even though he claimed in specific language that he did actually assemble it.
2) The school never thought it was a real bomb, though that is the story the media ran with for the first 2 days
3) The clock itself in fact looks like a prop bomb – the sort of thing used in a bomb hoax
4) The kid specifically has used re-housed electronic devices in the past to disrupt class
5) The kid comes from a family with specific media connections and pro-islam groups which use the media for activism
6) The kid was never arrested, he was questioned. yes it is different
7) The kid’s sister took the handcuff picture at the urging of her father. The cuffs were apparently put back on Ahmed for this photo Op.
8) The kid has videos that show his specific intelligence level and electronics skills.. He looks both dull and also delusional about his own abilities. He cannot hold a soldering iron. He claims he ‘soldered a CPU’. And >NO< he does not mean a APU adder or other actual project.
9) He keeps being judged like a 6 year old would be – in terms of skills. Meanwhile 14 year olds are capable of advanced projects.
The whole thing is emperor's new clothes. Teachers and school admins have been very unfairly smeared, made worse by their idiot mayor.
“This ahmed clock thing gets too much press. I know! I’ll complain about on the internet, effectively giving everyone in an editorial capacity an incentive for posting more about ahmed’s clock. I’m so smart.”
You want to complain about media ‘feeding a controversy’? Fine. How about continuing that line of reasoning by not giving them a controversy to capitalize on? How about – and this is just an idea here – you don’t incentivize stories about ahmed’s clock and shut up about the whole thing. It’s called being responsible for the media you consume, and bringing it up in a comment thread for a post not about ahmed’s clock at all just incentivizes it even more.
I’m editing this because I can.
It’s naive to suggest that an editorial prerogative exists in a vacuum. Editors – from their job description, almost – exist to increase traffic and views. They sell eyeballs. I only suggest that consumers of media are as responsible as editors for what is published; if a topic/story is successful, it is because it is liked, or at least highly viewed.
Therefore, when you complain about a story while still giving the editors the eyeballs, you are incentivizing further coverage.
This is why you must take responsibility for the media you consume. It’s not enough to complain about it, and in fact that does even more damage. Comments are yet another metric of success. When you post dozens of comments about how terrible a post is and how the editors are crooked, you’re incentivizing further coverage.
So, what’s the solution? If you don’t like something, ignore it. Yeah, holy shit, a novel idea. If you don’t like something, ignore it. That’s called taking responsibility for the media you consume.
Brian,
You argue that we should ignore the reality. That is all you argue. It has nothing to do with ‘giving them a controversy’ – it has everything to do with a blatant example of media narrative-making run amok – diverging from observable reality, while kicking up a storm of dissent, confusion, conflicting information, and competing opinions.
I didnt use the quote “feeding a frenzy”. I look at this more from a media-studies, philosophy, lust-for-truth point of view. In this case the story told was not true. Simply not true. The kid didnt do what was claimed by the media. The media was either misled or was a willng party to what normal people consider lies.
I am responsible for the media I consume. And as such am not willing to simply ignore the facts I listed above – none of which you responded to – instead talking about responsibility and incentive.
There is every responsibility to report truth, and it falls on you, not me. Further there is every inventive for you to embrace controversy – as it does in fact generate clicks and page reloads. These are simply facts, not angry claims – facts.
RE your edited comments.
I simply disagree that ignoring things is ever taking responsibility for them.
I realize you are bound to be frustrated and are trying to get it all out at once, so comments I didnt make are part of your issue with what I have said, so I will be patient.
I myself am hard-left. I protest war, occupy state capitals, and carry signs that say things like “Collective bargaining is capitalism for workers”. My beliefs are not overtly partisan.
I think that people who say “this has been talked about too much!” are wrong – I think it should be discussed until the truth is understood.. A bunch of role crazed media manipulators calling their personal first-glance opinions journalism is not for me. That isnt aimed at hackaday, just at the media.
I agree that popular stories, or controversial ones are great editorial choices for a advertising based business, and dont blame you at all for that belief – but now we are still discussing anything but the issues listed in my 2 posts now.. I am not a right winger, not a racist, dont hate muslims.
I just am willing to mention that I can see the emperors butthole.
You… I love you most. …platonically, from a distance…
1. You’ve gotta be kidding, “duh” – so what? Kid was proud of it.
2. Why call the cops then?
3. where do you even get this stuff? CSI?
4. see #1
5. and so what?
6. wtf are we doing handcuffing and questioning kids who are interested in electronics, even *if* he was a disruptive little shit in class
7. proof?
8&9 – I can’t even – clearly you need to post some projects with YOUR age so we can verify you’re in fact up to your own standards. By 30 you should have a masters degree I expect
Why am I even wasting my time with your garbage, quit parroting other people’s stuff and think for yourself.
You are lost. I pity your lack of self-respect.
1) This shows the media narrative has been WRONG.. You do know right from wrong? He isnt a geniuus, he didnt make a clock project – this isnt idle point – this is a central point that shows intent.
2) Zero tolerance policies, also the hoax-bomb suspicion = suspicion of crime.. A CRIME..
3) No, I am just not willing to lie to myself. I was on Ahmed’s side till I saw that picture.
4) It shows a pattern of taking not-project devices to school to get a provocative reaction. You do know how our legal system works?
5) it explains the media explosion and the one-sided narrative that took days to unwind to anything reality based.
6)He was suspected of a BOMB HOAX.. A crime.. In a zero tolerance setting.
7)She posted it on twitter – go find your own proof. Obama invited him to whitehouse before it was even posted.
8)When I was 14, we had 14.4K dial up. I ran a BBS on the Renegade ANSI BBS system. I went to 2600 meetings, built robot kits, etc. We had no cheap electronics, no websites of instructions, no cultural-awareness of our hobby. We fought for our interest. Also the kids only statements show he is a LIAR. Normal people who claim fake-ass stuff are called liars. Normal people call those who mislead others >Liars<.
9)Again – it shows the media followed a narrative, not facts. Do you understand what a fact is?
Possibly the most damning thing is that the kid was:
1) Told not to take the project to other classes
2) Had to plug the clock in, set the clock, set the alarm, then wait for it to go off.. In class.. Do you understand?
Oh come on, you know Noirwhal is right. By Ahemed’s age, he should either be building particle accelerators in his garage or he’s not a real nerd. We don’t want to start accepting that not every kid is at the same level of hacking and even beginners should be encouraged, or the next thing you know we’ll be overrun by hackers! It’ll be hard to feel Noirwhal-level special in a world like that.
Jet fuel and steel beams, Ruby Waco, mumble mumble…
B – as soon as you want to ignore facts and observable reality to make yourself feel better about a flawed narrative, you become a party to that narrative.
The media claimed a bunch of specific things- the kids a genius, he made a clock from electronic parts, and so on – None of it true.
The kid claims similar things – that he invents things, makes projects, solders CPUs – but in fact he does not do those things. It isnt true. It is a lie.
The story about the kid is built on lies, that much is obvious. How much of the story is a lie – only some, or all of it?
Noirwhal – One thing I suspect you and I might agree on: anytime you read an article on an even remotely technical subject you are familiar with, the accuracy comes in somewhere between “a little off” and “wtf did I just read?” So yeah, the media exaggerations are a bit much here.
And beginning at the source, in this case the kid is proud of what is a pretty minimal bit of work, for sure. But that doesn’t make his project a bomb hoax.
So he brings his project to school, then the school overreacted, then the police overreacted, and finally the media overreacted. And now the internet gets to deal with outrage from people like you, who make up whatever details they want – e.g. you’re apparently dead certain he had to plug in his clock in his English class to make it beep, even though there’s a 9V battery connector right there in the only photo of his clock published to date. So either you’re not being cautious with your analysis, or you’re being outright deceptive.
The real story here is that the US government and media have worked together to scare the crap out of the American public over the last 14 years, and Ahmed is a fairly good example of how ridiculous that fear has become. Maybe deal with that issue first, before criticizing kids for not hacking at a skill level that meets your personal approval.
9 he actually has a good point on. Anytime I see a “kid genius” story it’s usually the case of a teenager being held to a much lower standard and then everyone around them surprised they broke that standard. At this kid’s age I was not just repairing CB radios but building them from scrap. Writing software in C. Making art on graphing calculators (and got scolded for it in a geometry class of all places). Building go carts. Souping up lawnmower engines to the point they would flip the mower. And a lot more that would be considered ‘genious’ by today’s news but it really wasn’t.
I will cap this off with speculation and personal belief!
I said ‘i was on ahmeds side until…’ – I want to take that back. I am still on Ahmed’s side to some extent. He is 14 years old and playing the sort of pranks I would have played. He is also now pulled out of high school and might be home schooled. I think that is a horrible end outcome for this, and hope he ends up in a private school or his family moves. Denying him FIRST robotics, computer club, electronics and programming classes, interaction with other kids, etc. Would be a horrific final outcome for a kid interested in technology and science.
Hopefully he is smart enough to know that the MIT and google opportunities are still 4 long years away and he has a lot of learning to do to compete with the type of kids he met at the google science fair.
No matter what the whole story is – even if it is a political fabrication involving script writers or some conspiracy daydream – the 14 year old kid is still being used and now might miss out on high school. This might be an ultimate argument against zero tolerance laws.
All of which completely misses the point: A minor was detained and illegally questioned without parents or legal counsel present, over something that everyone acknowledges they did not think was either a bomb or a hoax bomb in the first place.
In my book, illegally detaining and questioning minors without counsel for a trumped-up reason is a big deal, and deserves condemnation.
While fox news runs commercials do you hit yourself in the head with a tack hammer? What does this have to do with a bullshit kick-starter campaign?
I live in scotland and I am a liberal so I don’t watch fox news. I support welfare, immigration, free healthcare etc. I am not an islamophobe Infact in my country I actively called on government to take in Syrian refugee’. Now I have explained my political views, I believe that ahmed tryed to make something that looked like a bomb to take to school just like his sister a few years earlier.
If somebody really really wants to throw their money away, can you stop them? If they can afford that sort of money for a laser-powered razor, I suppose they can afford it for an expensive lesson.
Don’t Indiegogo have any sort of anti-ripoff protection?
And if it weren’t for all the press attention, would they have got away with scamming $4M from Kickstarterers? How many other scams go unsprung?
Lets go back a year to the `AURA’ christmas tree lights. Video that wasn’t of the product,questionable technology, cancelled in January 2015, with no life on the website (http://www.poweredbyering.com/), facebook, twitter, or anywhere else since the questions came up early December 2014.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and, in this case, as well as in the case of the christmas tree ornaments, the evidence was not there. Neither was in violation of natural laws, or, for that matter, state of the art of technology. But in both cases, the claims were not supported by the provided evidence, and,when questioned, became sketchier.
When something seems to be too good to be true…..
Here’s a parody video we did at our hackerspace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQz4LKK6x2s
That is awesome. Too awesome in fact. I should not have been drinking coffee when I was watching it as coffee and sinuses do not mix very well.
You win 100 internet points for that good Sir.
awesome vid! thx!
We know. Discussed the hell out of it the last time it was featured here.
This thing had SCAM stamped all over the place. The fact they received $M’s in crowd funding speak loudly about the poor status of our educational system.
You can’t blame the education system for that. It’s called an illusion. Magic. Smoke and mirrors. Deceiving people since deception was invented. Real intelligence is the act of knowing it’s an illusion and attempting to prove it. You can’t teach people to spot illusions unless it’s from experience.
Thats true. Although I do remember in high school having a class called ‘Communications’. Advertising was a big section and covered all the usual BS.
In high school, I had “Mad” magazine, uncovering advertising scams was a big section.
So, it’s not a laser. But if the metal is glowing red that’s likely the deep red and NIR coming off the wire. If it’s hot there’s also longer IR coming off it. As to what’s doing the burning, it’s really that long IR if the wire actually burns hair off. I won’t buy one, real men shave with obsidian, but it’s still mildly amusing.
It was a laser in a fiber – but not as presented – Skarp was called out for using green screen and editing to hide their large laser supply.
In short, they have a potentially viable technology, but appear to be up to several years from a release date, and have not totally proven their tech is viable for the task they give it.
Kickstarter made a good, and I am sure hard decision – they should actually be commended for it. They didnt have to suspend the campaign and deciding to means they did some hard research into the project since 800+ K was on the line for them.
The skarp video does not really look like a hot wire. I believe skarps claim that the video is tinted to avoid people figuring out the wavelength from the video. There is a discussion on eevblog forum in which a obvious laser expert dissects the possible wavelengths and operation of the laser just from his experience using video cameras to caracterize laser systems – and skarp then shows up and compliments him on his intuition and mentions they dont think he is ‘quite right’. That was before the green tinted video came out.
Having watched their demo videos close I believe their claim that they have discovered a wavelength of light that causes the hair to break without outright burning it – there is no smoke wisps visible. With some experience with nichrome wire heaters and also various lasers, I beleive any actual heat-based cutting of the hair would result in visible smoke.
Their first video is clearly a fiber, not a hot wire, and it is red light in the fiber, not white or invisible like a YAG, c02, or similar would have
Heat “cutting” hair does not always result in visible smoke, as anyone who has worked around intense heat, small amounts of hair can easily be singed off without any visible smoke.
As it is, the green tinted video does indeed show “sparks of light”, ash and what appears to be smoke. So no, I doubt it’s laser. My opinion is it’s not a niochrome either but a high voltage pumped into a wire, like a bug zapper. His hand jumps back when one of his fingers touches the wire.
I am not sure a ‘bug zapper’ would target and cut hair. Is hair really a appropriate current sink for electricity? Would it really cut like shown in the video, or the entire hair burn? Would it even react this way? I dont think so – I think the body would act as a large dummy load.
Watch it closely – it does not act like nichrome, and I seriously doubt high voltage can be used to cut hair like that.
Real men shave with an ax!
http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-shave-with-an-axe/
I’m thinkin’ of crowdfunding my new invention. You see its sausage… in a bun.
Hey Brian,
Thanks for the add about the new cool indigogo campaign for the lazer razer thing.. I might have had to use my money to buy something useful if you hadn’t pointed out this new super cool technology and a new super cool place to buy it. I’m on it!
Also I love your new writing style where you cut and paste stuff, and then apparently don’t read it, and then comment about it anyway. That’s really great.. Here’s an example…
Kickstarter Integrity Team:
“After requesting and reviewing additional material from the creator of the project, we’ve concluded that it is in violation of our rule requiring working prototypes of physical products…”
Brian:
“Although we will never know exactly why Kickstarter suspended the original Skarp campaign….”
Keep up the great work, and great job “just ignoring me” like you were preaching above in that other guy’s post,
AC
Glad you eschewed the constructive criticism for simply being a dick….very refreshing.
FYI what is released in a marketing email doesn’t always represent the whole story.
Fuck off you insufferable cunt
Kickstarter smelled BS but they had to use a legitimate excuse to cancel the project. It’s like charging someone with murder when you don’t have the murder weapon. You have to find something else with enough ground to be usable against them.
Or….. maybe there isn’t some big conspiracy to crush some poor little guy inventor, and there was just “no working prototypes of physical products”? Just like they said… Maybe? Considering it’s pretty obvious it never would have worked as described, I’m going to say there probably wasn’t a working prototype.
The editorials here have really gone downhill. And the personal attacks from staff on comments are disheartening. May have to leave for good.
The staff engaging in a honest discussion is ‘disheartening’ to you?
I guess you like the popular system on the internet of ignoring and banning and pretending the staff is far above everybody? Then you are in luck!, there are many such sites. :)
You better watch out or Brian (Bench-off, not you) might stop posting all these awesome kickstarter ads with all this really cool technology that who knows! It just might work!!!! Event though there is no evidence and it violates the laws of physics!! it’s just ahead of it’s time!!! It’s TOTALLY worth checking out!!!
Now i am actually relishing the obvious possibility that when their IG campaign ends and they get the money that they actually won’t deliver the product since it doesn’t exist the way they described it (their photos are photoshopped) and then the investors will be pissed and by that time i’ll be laughing when they realize there’s no more updates and the inventors disappear. i’m about 99% sure it will happen that way considering skarp’s first update video in over a week is a disco music video instead of an actual fucking update, people asked them hundreds of questions on kickstarter which they decided to blatantly ignore. which is exactly the behavior of a scam artist. And no he didn’t invent IPL, am i the only one who has the boldness to refute that one claim that everyone seems to be throwing around as his great credential? not to mention when you study that guy’s face in the previous update videos it seems he’s on something, a stimulant perhaps, i’m not sure what, but i predict that he’s not as scientific as he claims to be. Their body language is very revealing, not to mention Paul Binun blamed the lack of a working prototype on the “fact” that he hadn’t paid their engineer team yet, boo fucking hoo, clearly that statement was designed to cover up the whole bullshittery that they’re weaving that is otherwise known as lack of transparency.
Actually, nichrome glows a bright violet-white on CCD’s when visibly, in person, it glows a dull red. CCD’s pick up IR. Point a remote control at your webcam and find out.