http://www.google.com/patents/US9017322
As far as I can tell, the idea is to use evanescent coupling to transfer light into hair follicles. There's no free space laser beam, just an optical fiber that you drag across your face. They also claim that chromophores (color bearing molecules) in hair can be severed at relatively low powers with a mixture of several specific frequencies of light.
So, what this product needs in order to work is a fiber that's durable enough to survive being dragged across skin while having very little cladding so as to allow evanescent coupling. That could be very hard to do, so the heads on these laser razors may wear out after a few shaves just like a metal razor. Second, they need to pack a high power multi-wavelength laser source and the power reserve to run it into a very tiny handle. Again, this is probably going to be pretty tricky.
There's nothing here that looks outright impossible to me. Just very, very tricky.
> So, what this product needs in order to work is a fiber that's durable enough to survive being dragged across skin while having very little cladding so as to allow evanescent coupling.
Facial hairs are alleged to be of similar toughness to copper wire when dry (see [0], too lazy to find a better reference). I have a difficult time conceiving how one could drag a multimode fiber across one's face without abrading the fiber to the point of failure.
> Second, they need to pack a high power multi-wavelength laser source and the power reserve to run it into a very tiny handle.
What is even trickier is incorporating a cooling mechanism for the theoretical self-contained, handheld, high-power, battery-powered white laser.
> There's nothing here that looks outright impossible to me. Just very, very tricky.
If it were not self-contained in a handheld unit, then yes, maybe it would be possible. I'm going to say that the their device, based on the proposed renderings, is impossible even if one were to throw Apple's war chest of money at it. There are also the problems of eye safety, skin exposure, heat, and fumes that remain to be overcome.
What if you're blond?
I imagine that we're not doing something radically different here, so the answer to this would probably be 'it won't work'.
Source: blond hair, reddish-brown facial hair.
I don't know if he was actually involved in this project or not, but that was the one thing that made me think that this maybe wasn't 100% a scam?
Anyway, the implication they make in their pitch isn't that it's an open laser, but that it is a laser confined to a fiberoptic wire which leaks into the hair when pressed against it. Gustavsson has published some papers on this a few years ago in which he refers to the concept as a TRASER.
Of course, if this really is such a revolutionary advance, why go to Kickstarter to bring it to market? Why not traditional investors. Gotta be easier to get funding for a significant manufacturing outlay, right? Just to not have to sell a piece of the company? To justify that there is a market?
I personally don't have the background to make any judgments about this and I definitely don't understand the article he published, but I just thought it didn't completely fail the smell test.
The obvious benefit being that you don't actually have to give Kickstarter "investors" any money back.
Kickstarter = funding without having to give anyone a stake.
Shouldn't that make them have strong check and balances in place to help people funding these projects?
This is pretty interesting, so what's stopping new startups to make apps and publish on kickstarter to avoid paying the investors back later? Also, why do these "investors", more like donors, so willing to throw their money at the screen?
[1] http://pathsurveyor.com/510k/K013366 [2] http://www.fda.gov/radiation-emittingproducts/electronicprod...
They want to get the thing made and out the door before scrutiny from FDA types would cost them more money than the actual product dev.
>Morgan Gustavsson
Dunno, but people cash out all the time. Race car drivers endorsing crappy mass produced cars, etc. I'm especially critical of anyone nearing or at retirement age. There's a "give no fucks, give me easy money" attitude that kicks in around then, as well as worrying about taking care of those you love after you pass. Not to mention, these people being way past their prime and perhaps trying to chase old glories via questionable methods.
>why go to Kickstarter to bring it to market?
Lets assume the tech isn't all snake-oil. Maybe investors know things that Joe Blow Internet Geek doesn't. Concerns about safety, power usage, lawsuits, regulations, etc. This seems like a nice way to side-step informed investing and push all the high risk liabilities onto random schmucks.
Or its a "semi-scam." I watched the video of the prototype and its clear that its just cutting using a hot wire, which seems to be heated up via some kind of light source, perhaps a laser. Sure its a "laser" cut, but not exactly what people are expecting.
I don't find them all to be money-grubbing hucksters -- but rather more concerned about doing what's right. I think a lot of people at that age are looking at their legacy (kids, business, etc.) and want to have a positive impact. My mom is such an example: quitting her private industry work to spend her last working decade at a non-profit.
And working in the start-up world, I know a lot of people my age and younger that are willing to bend ethical rules too far to make a quick buck.
The fact that they didn't have a video of someone actually shaving was icing on the cake. The video "demo" that's on youtube is such bullshit I wonder what they thought they'd accomplish by posting it. Show me someone putting laser to face, someone with warts, pimples and less-than-smooth complexion. Then, maybe then, we can talk.
A AAA battery doesn't store enough power to drive a laser capable of burning hair for any reasonable amount of time.
When the laser isn't interrupted by the hair it has to go some where which means that heat is produced, if it can get something hot enough to burn the hair off it would get hot enough that you won't be able to hold it yet alone put it to your face.
There's no way you would ever could get the laser beam close enough to the skin for a smooth shave without burning your skin off.
And most importantly burnt hair smells like shit....
P.S. I assume that most people know at least 1 person that did laser hair removal, they should know it's a very painful and long process and it works only on dark hairs so again using this to shave anything but a fairly dark beard would never work.
That doesn't make sense. Of course you can remove hair with light. IPL isn't anything new, and this product is apparently from someone who has worked in that field for a long time.
> it's a very painful and long process and it works only on dark hair
.. which is exactly the innovation claimed in the video: this is an IPL-like method that works on light hair by bending them against a fiber. Does it work? I have no idea. But it's certainly not against "common sense". And there are prior patents in delivering IPL by fiber.
The final product could not have such a small battery shown in the video however. The production unit would probably be closer to existing IPL products in size. They're not impractically big, much like a hair dryer.
Doesn't get around the smell, power requirement, or heat output though.
Does it produce a smell?
No. Because we're not actually burning the hair, it doesn't produce a burnt hair smell.
Which sounds interesting, if it is not burning then what? Just melting?
KickStarter project page (suspended):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skarp/the-skarp-laser-r...
IndieGoGo project page (they re-posted the project there after being suspended):
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-skarp-laser-razor-21s...
Demonstration video:
That's a bit harsh. Most people don't understand technology on a functional level. Ask a "regular" person how programming, the internet or their mobile phone works and they won't be able to give you a technical explanation. In fact, most modern technology tries to hide the internal workings.. "it just works".
I wonder how much scamming goes on with kickstarter, etc. I've been involved in a couple of projects (as payer, not seller) and am batting about 1/3.
What if one could invent a working bladeless razor? It is a blue ocean waiting to be delved in.
Just thinking out loud.
Now I'm sad that it's a fake, even if I wanted to wait till the first version came out.
Interesting. Was this a recent policy change? Control VR never showed any working prototypes either, and their campaign was allowed (this was in 2014). Their demonstration video was later revealed to be using another company's significantly more expensive product ($10k+ vs the $600 pledge price), with zero modifications. They never demonstrated any prototypes of the product they were claiming to develop themselves, yet the campaign went through and now they have everyone's money (>$400k) without delivering.
not everyones, just the suckers. Yes, we are at a point you are a sucker if you buy into crowdfunding without doing due diligence. Batterizer, MuOptics, Soap router, they all had signs of being scams from the start, but still managed to defraud people for over a $1mil.
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/01/ask-hackaday-i-love-the-smell...
They have generally been good at writing up some of the more sketchy kickstarts.
Also, I was kind of suspicious when I noticed that more than half of the team have beards.
But this whole thing brings up many interesting questions. The fine was 1k per WA resident + reimbursement + legal fees. Knowing that the AG has your back if things go south should undoubtedly embolden WA residents, which may lead to a higher percentage of backers coming from that state, which in turn would mean a higher fine if things fall through. I honestly was going to have my sister, a WA state resident, back this for me for my birthday, if it survived to the last day of funding.
Links:
http://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-makes-crowdfunde...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/213177064/asylum-playin...
If you're unaware, Indiegogo has shown that they're more than willing to be the platform of choice for scammers and nonsense products.
A site that focuses on the shipping milestones, the true measure of success rather than meeting an arbitrary goal, would be valuable.
Kickstarter and IndieGoGo need to do a much, much better job policing this, otherwise they will be out of business in 2 years. There are too many shitty products with great marketing videos that are taking a lot of money, and they will likely all be disappointing as hell.
Anecdotally I see this with video games on Steam Greenlight, but that service always seemed liked the Wild West to me.
"They have been incredibly helpful and they believe in the
Skarp Razor as much as we do," the firm said of Indiegogo.
Let's say we take everything at face value and believe 100% they can do this and that it is not a scam. If there is no prototype it's still possible that it could not work as it's unproven.
The reviews make it sound like its a rather slow and smelly affair shaving this way.
Optic fiber glass is SHARP AS HELL.
So, make the thing light up with pretty lights and colors and expose a sharp glass edge for cutting.
Works like a razor, cuts incredibly closely, and has ooh shiny for marketing.
I'm not seeing a problem with this.