#HTE

Whatever Happened to the Amabrush Hands-Free Automatic Toothbrushing Device?

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:

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.

http://www.core77.com/posts/70354/Whatever-Happened-to-the-Amabrush-Hands-Free-Automatic-Toothbrushing-Device