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Aido: The Next Home Robot Scam?

Another vaporware social robot scampaign that promises the moon but provides zero evidence it works.

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Aido: The Next Home Robot Scam?

Aido: The Next Home Robot Scam?

Aido: The Next Home Robot Scam?

Aido: The Next Home Robot Scam?

Aido: The Next Home Robot Scam?

Another vaporware social robot scampaign that promises the moon but provides zero evidence it works.

Another vaporware social robot scampaign that promises the moon but provides zero evidence it works.

Another vaporware social robot scampaign that promises the moon but provides zero evidence it works.

Another vaporware social robot scampaign that promises the moon but provides zero evidence it works.

Guy Raz
Guy Raz
Guy Raz
Guy Raz
4 Campaigns |
Somewhere in, India
$10 USD 10 backers
2% of $500 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 4 Projects Mountain Filled 4 Projects
Overview
The Aido social robot campaign is a blatant attempt to sell a non-existent product - in other words, a scam, or scampaign, since it's on Indiegogo - the place where scammers love to come and steal your money. The Aido scampaign is full of promises and claims, but provides zero verifiable evidence that a full-size or tabletop functional prototype exists. Still, they claim Aido is shipping in Feb. 2017. Get your refunds, credit card charge-backs, and investments back NOW, before it's too late!

After exposing the BioRing and Goodsomnia Indiegogo scamspaigns, we're taking on Aido: the Next Gen Home Robot:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aido-next-ge...

The Aido campaign wants you to believe that it has a robot that will guard your home, suggest recipes, take pictures, read stories, help with home repairs, recognize guests, play songs and movies, send and receive video chats, set your thermostat, play with a ball, entertain your pet, project interactive menus, and wake you up, among other capabilities - all for a just $549 (multimedia projector and charging base docking station sold separately for an additional $400).

Ball-rolling robots do exist - in university robotics programs and multi-million dollar companies, that have spent millions of dollars and years on robotics research, experimentation, and custom-fabricated parts.  There's one on TED that even dances like Cinderella at the ball.  And they can't do even a fraction of what the creators of the Aido campaign claim their robot can do.  In fact, it's so innovative, they claim to have won a prestegious "Game Changer" award by T3, a popular online and print tech magazine in the UK:

We wanted to verify that assertion, so we simply e-mailed T3's Editor in Chief, Rob Carney.  Here is his response:

Wait, what?  It's NOT an actual award, and T3 didn't screen worthy robotics candidates - it was PITCHED to them by - drum roll... INDIEGOGO!!!  And we of course know the reasons why: getting articles about Indiegogo campaigns published drives traffic to the campaign, thus leading to more backer contributions, with 5% of each payment transfered to Indiegogo's business checking account, while the rest waits for disbursement to the campaign.  CHA-CHING!

So what, they lied?  Oh no! I wonder what else they deceived us about...  Let's see.  How about the claim below that Aido can project a bright, visible, interactive menu on a white cutting board under bright overhead kitchen lights, without a laser beam, not to mention it projects gray objects, which, if you understand high school optics, gray or black are simply the absence of light?  That's not possible, of course, when there's multiple sources of white light directly overhead...

Oops!  The universal height of kitchen counter tops, according to the American Institute of Architects, is 36" (3 ft).  But Aido's TOTAL height is just under 3 ft.  So it can't be projecting ANYTHING onto a cutting board.  Solution?  Off comes its head and upper torso!

But once again, how does it project ANYTHING onto the counter top when its head can't even rotate down far enough to do so?  Look at the previous video screen shot - there is NO WAY that head can tilt far down enough to project an image onto a horizontal surface at ANY height!

As the kids say: EPIC FAIL.

Then they claim Aido can project movies (or the Bat Signal) onto a wall if you add the multimedia LED DLP projector for $199.  That's pretty damn cheap for a good digital projector, most of which cost $500 & up.  But whatever - let's say, for the sake of argument, they found a great volume discount deal in China.  Note that they don't specify how many lumens it's rated at - in other words, HOW BRIGHT (and by extension, HOW FAR) you can project a sharp image before it begins to fade.  To remind you, here's what you saw in the scampaign's promo video:

Kind of embarrassing, isn't it?  It's not so hard to produce a really bad promo video using unrelated images, computer graphics, and added footage, that defies the laws of optics, just like the fake and impossible kitchen counter projection in bright overhead light.  You don't have to be an expert to know we're right - use your common sense.  It just looks so unbelievably wrong...

What's in Aido's head, anyway?  The "face" is nothing but a Samsung Galaxy 3 8.0 Android tablet, mounted inside a 3D-printed enclosure.  No interactive LED DLP projector - not above the tablet or below it...



Once again: embarrassing... 

Want some more embarrassing lies?  How about the album full of videos Aido's team uploaded to their DropBox?  Here they are - watch a couple:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oa7fayon2iyb73f/AACk...

What's the first thing you notice, if you have a keen eye?  Well, the office is illuminated from a very brightly lit hall way.  Anything inside the office - like the person in the video, Aido, furniture, walls, etc. - should be reflecting that light back.  But when you only see Aido's head, neck, and the wall and behind it are in total darkness, you just know these scenes are spliced from two different videos - one shot in well-lit conditions, the other in darkness.  Does it bother you even slightly knowing that all these videos allegedly demonstrating voice and facial recognition, machine vision, and interactive dialogue  ARE ALL FAKED????

In fact, every scene in the promo video is fake and staged.  Aido is never seen in its entirety: either the upper torso, or the lower torso.  But never together.  Never complete.  You never see Aido from ball to head.  It's just a puppet - a mock-up.  A dummy.  Don't believe it?  Watch it again.  Pause each time you see Aido.  Look for one sequence - JUST ONE - where you see Aido roll, turn, and stand, from head to floor?  (Hint: you won't find any...)  Here's some help - nearly every shot of Aido from the video:

(and don't tell us you didn't notice how Aido's blue puppy-dog eyes kept shifting and floating - as if they were added digitally in post-production - oh, wait...)

Our favorite and most endearing moment in the promo video is of course... THE PEEK-A-BOO SCENE!!!

That's a good 15-20 degree tilt there, Aido!  But what's this?  the FAQ mentions that its maximum tilt is 8 degrees???  Somebody's got some 'SPLAININ' to do!!!  To make matters worse for themselves, the Aido scammers mention in that same FAQ entry that if Aido is about to fall over (i.e., a tilt past 8 degrees), retractable legs pop out just in time to save it from a bad warranty-voiding fall:

Wait, WHAT???  Legs?  WHERE?   Certainly not in the slick rendering full of fake components and imaginary drive wheel configurations:

Even Space X had a bitch of a time getting its 3-legged stage rocket from falling over at the end of a flawless landing.  But since there's no room in Aido's crowded body for a complicated retractable leg mechanism just above the fake-as-hell drive mechanism, why bother adding it?  Why bother explaining how the legs actuate and lock in place?  (Hint: they don't exist...)

 And finally - let's ask this simple question:  Who is making Aido?  Apparently a bunch of Indians who snagged an office at 2600 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA. 94306...  Wait - no suite number?  No floor number?  Do they have the entire building to themselves???

They call their company "Ingen Dynamics."  Why does that sound familiar?  OH YEAH!!! Ingen is the name of the fictitious company founded by fictitious gazillionaire John Hammond in the science-fiction blockbuster, Jurassic Park:

Now why has no other Real World company used that name since the movie came out in 1993?  The answer, simply, is that Universal Studios owns the copyright to the name, and nobody else can use it.

 

If Universal wanted to, they could sue the Aido campaign for copyright infringement and win a handsome judgment.

Let's see what these two Universal executives have to say about it (yep, we contacted them for comment):

 

 

 

Interestingly, in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, Ingen means "no-one."  How fitting is that for a product that doesn't exist?

In conclusion: we've raised A LOT of difficult questions about Aido's claims, performance, capabilities, cost, shipping date, lack of evidence of working prototypes, faked videos and ludicrous simulations.  We're not robotics experts.  We're not criminal investigators.  But we're not stupid, and we used our common-sense, healthy skepticism, and critical thinking to unravel a sloppy, tangled, web of lies, deceptions, and distortions.  If you ask yourself and the campaign creators the right questions, you will inevitably reach the same conclusion we have: that Aido is vaporware - a hoax - a sham - a fraud - a fake - a scam.

Is anyone at Indiegogo responding to the warnings its received?  Nope.  No-one.  Ingen.

We'll be posting periodic updates to bring you new information and more in-depth analysis of this scampaign.  Until then, please pledge $1 and lend your voice to ours in the comments section.  Tell us how we're doing and if we missed a critical detail.  If you post anything usable, we will give you full credit in the updated story or allow you to write & post your own update!

If you're already a backer - do whatever is legally possible to obtain a refund or credit-card charge-back.  Warn others.  Comment on blind endorsements and favorable puff-piece articles on Aido published by the oblivious digital media, which could care less if Aido is a scam, as long as the story drives traffic to their advertisers.  Remember that Indiegogo ACTIVELY SOLICITS these media sites, tech blogs, and even PR and marketing firms!  While you might not feel it's worthwhile, report Aido to Indiegogo.  If they get enough reports, it might reach critical mass and lead to action.  Post your tough questions and genuine concerns in the Aido scampaign's comments section.  We did very early on, but our comments were deleted or ignored, and our pledges refunded, effectively silencing us.  The Aido scammers have already made off with close to $1 million on Indiegogo.  In Demand means that Indiegogo cuts them weekly checks based on new contributions.  That's YOUR money they stole, or worse - money belonging to a friend or relative YOU referred to the scampaign.   How does that make you feel now?

There's more to come, so "heart" this campaign and expect our first update soon!

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