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There are nearly 30,000 people who want to brush their teeth without using their hands. We know this because earlier this year, 26,832 Kickstarter backers pledged €3,198,516 (USD $3.75 million) to bring the Amabrush, an "automatic toothbrush," to life.
Yes, our resident illustrator of imagined contraptions, Steven M. Johnson, came up with this first. But here's what Amabrush's real-life version looks like and how it's used:
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Enter a caption (optional)Early tester models were supposed to have gone out by now, with the final product to ship in December. But those plans have been derailed. So what happened? According to the Amabrush developers,
…We unfortunately could not manage to send out Amabrush to our Pilot Testers, due to legal concerns.
…For everyone to know why we had to take those steps: We had some serious discussions with legal departments. Governmental matters did put us [sic] obstacles in our way and with every step it seemed to get more complicated and so a pre-release of our product was not possible, due to certification and other governmental issues.
It's somehow really complicated and we don't want to go into detail right now….
Doesn't sound very promising, but it's amazing that it brought in $3.75 mil.
Would-be design entrepreneurs among you, we suggest you start poring over Johnson's Bizarre Inventions to see what other crowdfunding gold might be in there.
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Whatever Happened to the Amabrush Hands-Free Automatic Toothbrushing Device?
Maybe it’s because it’s definitely not the first! I worked on a product like this in 1998...
What happens with all the money? Is it refunded?
They get to keep it. Like it is stolen. This project is EXACTLY the sole reason why I will never invest in anything on kickstarter, ever again. I just wanted to try it but then my wife demanded one too so I lost 2x the money. Kickstarter.com has REFUSED to give me even a PO Box for the company to serve them small claims court papers so I am screwed unless I want to go the route of subpoenaing the information which LV, nv small claims court actually doesn't even permit.
Looks like there is another version on Kickstarter as well... still looks like they have a lot to figure out though: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2077043275/unicotm?ref=FundedToday&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=41dsa.fnd.to