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back to article Kickstarter unplugs iFind miracle battery-free locator

Kickstarter has pulled the plug on the campaign to raise funds for the iFind - described as "The World's First Battery Free Item Locating Tag". iFind's creators WeTag had raised a cool $546,852 from 9,771 backers when Kickstarter suspended funding yesterday. Critics of the project raised serious doubts about its viability, …

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  1. Lyndsay Williams
    Alert

    Whatever next?

    A team of radio engineers on Kickstarter checked out the maths on the energy harvesting and could not see how it would work. As the company claimed "patent pending", a legal term, that can only be used if true, I searched for a patent application in US and Europe, but the application number the company supplied seemed to have only part of the patent number. I repeated asked for photo of prototype but no response. When I asked specific engineering questions such as temperature range of use of device, I was told "normal", a bit vague. There were many other red flags, such as project leader saying he had not even a Linkedin profile, due to previous identity theft. The video "demo" omitted the Bluetooth icon on the phone. They were 3 days away from collecting $545,000. I contacted Kickstarter with others, but got no response from them.

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    1. Peter Simpson 1
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: Whatever next?

      The lack of any demonstated experience by the technical lead, the sketchy, unverifiable bios provided and the "identity theft" excuse (a full Linkedin profile can't be used to steal your identity, because those folks want home address, national number and DOB, at a minimum, none of which I have ever seen on Linkedin).

      If *I* was asking for $250k from Kickstarter, you'd better believe I'd have a Linkedin profile and some information that would lead potential investors to believe that the gadget I was basing my company on would actually work (like a list of similar projects and pointers to papers on them)

      Energy harvesting is real, and you can power devices from harvested energy. But physics is also real, and it *always* trumps wishful thinking and marketing optimism.

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  2. Elmer Phud

    Won't get fooled again?

    9771 who don't understand that energy just ain't free.

    Maybe it's time for a new Startup site for those greedy fools who don't look first.

    South Sea Baubles?

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  3. Caaaptaaaain kick arse

    I bet it was a little bit of card ...

    Which said "It's over there", extra £/$10 for the upgrade to "It's over there ->"

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  4. ItsNotMe
    WTF?

    Another P.T. Barmun moment

    "iFind's creators WeTag had raised a cool $546,852 from 9,771 Lemmings when Kickstarter suspended funding yesterday.

    There...fixed it for you.

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  5. harmjschoonhoven
    FAIL

    prior art

    RFID (ISO 14443) working at a comfortable frequency of 13.56 MHz does what iFind claims to do.

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  6. Tim Roberts 1

    I have no opinion on this project, but

    If my memory serves me correctly there was a case of someone who lived under HT power lines who "harvested" the radiated field to power his house. A fairly simple technique of running wire around his property several times to create a transformer that gave him electricity at the right voltage. His argument was that it was "waste" energy, the energy company and the wigs decided that it wasn't, so he copped the consequences.

    Mind you this would have been at least a couple of decades ago so my memory may indeed be faulty.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I have no opinion on this project, but

      How far did said gay take it? If I were playing hardball, I'd argue that the ambient electricity is no different from radio waves which are used for communication, meaning ruling against him could've put radio under threat since it works under the exact same principle.

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      1. geeboh
        Reply Icon

        Re: I have no opinion on this project, but

        Not that it makes any difference but what makes you think he was gay?

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    2. lpcollier
      Reply Icon

      Re: I have no opinion on this project, but

      That's not actually making use of 'waste' energy. The transformer effect would couple the house wiring to the HT lines and cause current draw from the HT lines which should be measurable.

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      1. Peter Simpson 1
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        Re: I have no opinion on this project, but

        ...and would be considered energy theft by both the power company and the law.

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  7. Roby

    NOT A SCAM!!!

    We thank you for your support of iFind and support Kickstarter’s decision to suspend the campaign. Not in any way because of the fact that we are a scam. WE ARE NOT!!

    Is it me or does this make it sound more like a scam. Looks like something I would read in a spam email.

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    1. Peter Simpson 1
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      Holmes

      Re: NOT A SCAM!!!

      Methinks they doth protest too much.

      Just show us the working prototype, with independently verified numbers, and we'll decide if it's a scam or not.

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