Smarty Ring on IGG

[Bored@Work]

It's not "for sale” if it doesn't even exist yet.

Conman all over the world would disagree with you.  So would bankers all over the world.

[Kean]

OK, now they're just taking the mickey... another update posted just minutes ago:

Good news! we are switching to e-paper display to minimize the power consumption, to get more battery life.

We are adding backlights to e-paper display to get good visibility on both day and night, than leds.

please wait for next update, we will post a working prototype, thanks for your patience and helping us to make this unique product.

[Corporate666]

This project was a total hype job from the start - I backed for $1 just to keep up with the updates and be able to post, but it amazes me how really stupid (frankly) people are.  There are people saying "give us a choice of LED or e-paper" and "give them a chance, they can still do it".

An e-paper display will be nothing like the rendered product they showed originally in the campaign video.  The people hanging on to hope are just stupid... like buying a sports car and they tell you they're changing to a pickup truck instead.

[Kean]

The latest SmartyRing update isn't much better than the eariler ones, but there is a mention of potential refunds 

Dear Supporters,

We are in final stage of completing working prototype, it will be completed before December. If we fail to complete , we will start making refunds.

Thanks for your patience

[Kalidor]

www.smartyring.com is gone and no updates since 6 months, successfully scammed $400k from 1500 backers with two campaigns.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smarty-ring--3
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smarty-ring--4

[edy]

Even the renderings are flawed....

Look how wide the ring appears on the girl and the guy... At least DOUBLE the width of the rendered rings on the table. They can't even get the renders correct. I don't think they have any clue as to the actual size of the ring, none of the external or internal physical dimensions, which will severely limit the display, processing function and battery life of this device.

See the photos attached here...


Airing = Smarty Ring = no-prototype dreams in the clouds

[miguelvp]

www.smartyring.com is gone and no updates since 6 months, successfully scammed $400k from 1500 backers with two campaigns.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smarty-ring--3
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smarty-ring--4

I posted it before but I'll repost it again:

[edy]

Ok.... I get it...      I didn't catch that finger the first time. 

[Corporate666]

That whole project is a joke.  A huge black eye for IndieGoGo, but also indicative of the average critical thinking skills of most people.

They showed obviously fake renderings of a pie-in-the-sky product, and people threw money at them.  One could say that people aren't at fault for believing what they are told, but the renderings are Star-Trek levels of fit/finish and technology which does not exist yet, which is where people's critical thinking skills (or lack of) come in.

And shame on IGG for doing nothing about this scammer and letting 6 MONTHS go by without any update, yet still telling backers "we feel the creator is doing an adequate job" blah blah blah.

[edy]

Perhaps if IndieGoGo actually vetted their site projects better, none of this would happen. Or if they audited actual backer projects through a team of engineers or even had a panel of experts from various industries review "flagged" projects, they could easily tell practical or possible from dream projects. Or perhaps allowed non-backers to comment on projects, to act as a non-biased voice to sway opinions. Or to allow backers to easily and automatically get refunded (I know Kickstarter does that but not sure about IGG) during and even AFTER the initial campaign, especially if the project gets over-funded. Or perhaps if they held backer money in escrow or released it in phases to the project creators in line with meeting project timeline goals (and proving that they have).  And the list goes on... 

So many ways that IndieGoGo can make it less attractive to scammers who are great at using 3D rendering tools and photoshop, yet still be faithful to the crowd-funding spirit to actual people who have something that works and can deliver it. But IndieGogo stands to make money even from these failed projects, so what is their incentive? Wouldn't they want to make it a safer environment so that more people will back future projects and they will make more money in the long run? Why just take the attitude of "it's not our problem, we are just a 3rd party middle-man handling the transaction"? If the platform builds a reputation of not delivering or pissing backers off, they will stand to lose more... Unless they think project creators will just move to another crowd-funding site to avoid the additional scrutiny?

I also put the blame on the media bloggers and tech news sites. They find something and recite the same drivel over and over again, repeating the story and press kit photos numerous times (like those Smarty Ring renders) without even one person questioning anything they are seeing. Why? Because the more eyeballs click on those blog sites, the more "cool" the gadget, the more speedy the hyperbole-train flies, the more revenue they make from ad-clicks. You see it every time. I listen to CNET, TechCrunch, and other tech-related content and most of them do not step back a moment and think how this device is ACTUALLY possible.

And unfortunately there are way too many people who are not familiar with the current state of technology and science. We may take it for granted but then again I assume the majority of people on EEVBlog forums are educated (or striving to learn more) and more technically-oriented than the average person who has no idea what is going on inside their phone, car, microwave, TV, etc... and simply knows how to press the buttons to make things work. So I can't blame most people for believing this Smarty Ring scam... It does look impressive and I can understand why people would go for it. They just don't know any better. So is there any protection for people in this case? We are free to throw money at whatever we want, but at the same time the project creators lied about it and did not deliver.

Everyone from the media to IndieGogo and in-between stands to profit from promoting these impossibly cool gadgets without taking any time to critique them. That's why we need to change the system to allow non-backers to comment in a way that allows the backers and creators also to see the posts. Allow us to crap directly at the source on the party-like awesomeness factor and step back into REALITY. I see that happen when the project has a FaceBook page... but even then, backers get very defensive about their decision and fight the critics. Who wants to listen to a bunch of old pessimistic EEVBlog folks?  So then you just say "the heck with them" and let them throw their money away... Scammers win. Unfortunate situation. The backers really have to fight this themselves.

[will9twl]

hi, i'm just curious, so did anyone receive an actual product?

[EEVblog]

Or if they audited actual backer projects through a team of engineers or even had a panel of experts from various industries review "flagged" projects, they could easily tell practical or possible from dream projects.

Yes. This.
Doesn't pay to have engineering staff on hand of course, but I'm sure you'd find suitably qualified and vetted volunteers willing to give a quick thumbs up/down to any flagged project.
So a projects gets reported by N people, and then gets automatically passed onto a suitable review group who give a quick "vibe" thumbs up or down rating. If it gets enough thumbs down the projects gets pulled.
Of course you want to avoid any "approved" system, as from IGG point of view that means liability. But pulling projects based on expert opinion/vibe does not make you liable for anyone, it's protecting you and giving you increased credibility at the loss of perhaps a small amount of profit.

[Corporate666]

Or if they audited actual backer projects through a team of engineers or even had a panel of experts from various industries review "flagged" projects, they could easily tell practical or possible from dream projects.

Yes. This.
Doesn't pay to have engineering staff on hand of course, but I'm sure you'd find suitably qualified and vetted volunteers willing to give a quick thumbs up/down to any flagged project.
So a projects gets reported by N people, and then gets automatically passed onto a suitable review group who give a quick "vibe" thumbs up or down rating. If it gets enough thumbs down the projects gets pulled.
Of course you want to avoid any "approved" system, as from IGG point of view that means liability. But pulling projects based on expert opinion/vibe does not make you liable for anyone, it's protecting you and giving you increased credibility at the loss of perhaps a small amount of profit.

I don't think they even need to hire a single person to fix the problem.

All they need to do is allow people to comment before they put $$ into the project.  As it stands, only people who pay can post comments, which means the only people talking are the ones who've bought into the idea.

Not only that, they let project creators delete comments.  That's insanity!  Creators can just delete anything that calls their project into question.

They should let users select a job title when they sign up for the site and have a thumbs up/thumbs down for users.  That way if someone labels themselves an engineer but has tons of thumbs down, you know the community doesn't put much stock in that person.  Whereas if they get lots of thumbs up, they are either trustworthy or make on-point comments.

Wouldn't cost IGG a dime, wouldn't increase their liability at all, IMO, and would help protect their users from scams.  The only downside is it might cause some projects not to fund that otherwise would.  Which (again IMO) is clear proof that IGG cares more about short-term $$ today and delivering long-term value. 

[edy]

That's a good idea. Why they don't have any comments option for non-backers is to eliminate critical thinking.

IndieGogo reminds me of those sales meetings designed as free lectures on some money making or too good to be true deal. They get a bunch of people in the room and after a well-polished sales pitch there is mass hysteria about wanting to buy in before it's too late. I have seen many otherwise normal people get wrapped up in the fervor.

IndieGogo backer comments are like that.... And people who even think they have made a mistake will still delude themselves into justifying their decision.

I think the only realistic option (since IndieGogo will likely never do what we are talking about) is simply to keep commenting about projects on blogs, forums and everywhere else that is indexed by Google so if people do want to freely express their opinions they have a place to do so. Every backer who gets scammed today is one less backer who gets scammed tomorrow.

[Kalidor]

hi, i'm just curious, so did anyone receive an actual product?

That was the latest "prototype" - one year ago.
in some countries brass knuckles  are forbidden   


https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smarty-ring--3/x/10280792#/updates

"We designed a new shape as below, The advantages are,
1. 30% more battery life
2. The over all ring width will be reduced from 4mm to 2.5mm , so it will look elegant than the existing design.
We will make this shape only for who wish to have, otherwise we will send the existing design.
Thanks for your support."

[tom66]

Maybe I'm too cynical but it looks like this similar Smart Ring project might be going the same way:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/doi-smartring-connectivity-at-your-fingertips#/story

They're at least regularly updating and they did have some real prototypes, but when you see the board they've come up with and some of the explanations for delays or progress, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. For example, the most recent update, they're talking about programming the OLED pixel-by-pixel due to a lack of high level tools. Does their processor not have the memory/capability to draw fonts/icons/etc from memory? Very odd.

[Kalidor]

Maybe I'm too cynical but it looks like this similar Smart Ring project might be going the same way:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/doi-smartring-connectivity-at-your-fingertips#/story

From this render: 


To that proto-knuckle: 


At least these guys showed up at CES, from the SmartyRing guys we not even have a picture.

[Corporate666]

Maybe I'm too cynical but it looks like this similar Smart Ring project might be going the same way:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/doi-smartring-connectivity-at-your-fingertips#/story

From this render: 


To that proto-knuckle: 


At least these guys showed up at CES, from the SmartyRing guys we not even have a picture.

Just another project created by idiots, and funded by idiots.

Looking at the initial render, it's obvious they won't be able to achieve anywhere near what they sold people on - not even close.  Just like the Smarty Ring fool, they are promising a Star-Trek like level of fit and finish that might be achievable 20 years from now, but isn't today.

$170k is about what Apple would spend *per day* developing this project, if not more.  And Apple wouldn't be able to come close to the size or level of fit/finish they promised in that rendering.

How dumb are people to fall for this stuff?  I guess there's a reason penis enlargement pills sell, as well as pills that promise to make you look 30 years younger.  There are a lot of dumb people out there!

[edy]

I found these on Alibaba. Much less cost and functionality but they actually exist:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Smart-R-I-N-G-Accessories_60305586121.html?spm=a2700.7724838.35.1.xThmnN