The makers of Holus, a "holographic display," broke all the rules in the book. They posted fake CGI renderings of what's described elsewhere as a "Pepper's Ghost"-style optical trick, yet claim to "convert any digital content from a computer, tablet or smartphone into a 3D hologram." The viewing angles and qualities depicted are technologically unlikely. They only wanted $40k, but research and manufacturing costs could surely not be so tiny, suggesting crowdfunding as a VC-marketing vehicle. Most oddly, they even used a Kickstarter "Staff Pick" badge; when challenged, Kickstarter disclaimed interest in the unofficial use of the badge. The big question, from Joanie Lemercier, an artist and engineer who specializes in projections and holograms: is Kickstarter covering a scam?
UPDATE: Lemercier reports that Kickstarter's
Yancey Strickler has responded. The short of it: though they broke the rules, "the project conformed to our stated rules" when asked, so get over it.
Lemercier is unimpressed.
Kickstarter has been passive aggressive while covering up the project.
– Official 'reports' were made from day 1, you did not reply (expect email auto-replies)
– Jason Sapan has been making real holograms in NYC for over 40 years, he warned you about the fraud, you did not listen.
– Raphaël de Courville, another expert wrote three in-depth articles (1 – 2 – 3) about his investigations, you did not care to comment.
– embarrassing questions were asked in the project comments, you deleted them.
– In the meantime, suspicious accounts (1 – 2) and holus partner (1) comments broke another rule, but were not moderated.
– after the removal of prohibited CGI and staff pick status, backers were never informed.In my opinion, your monitoring system is opaque, and open discussion is discouraged. It would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
An now you're telling us that "Staff pick badges aren't part of Kickstarter"
