Luci Article

Article by Ian Harbison

	Kickstarter (http://goo.gl/1Ex289) is an online fundraising site that many innovators, artists, and engineers have used to fund fantastic projects. In past Kickstarter has had a few notable mishaps, the most recent was a book about pleasuring women that seemed to pass right by the Kickstarter staff, the project went unnoticed for 30 days and raised over 16 thousand dollars. In the last month, there has been a project called Luci that has picked up a lot of steam. Luci is a device that is focused on lucid dreaming, a phenomenon that occurs when you become self aware in a dream. The device monitors brain waves using an external signal amplifier. The device had a headband like design. It has an electrode on the front of the headband that sends the brain waves to the signal amplifier.  The device uses the signals to detect REM sleep, (Rapid Eye Movement). Upon REM sleep being detected, the device plays a pre-recorded message that says, “This is a dream… take control.” The device is supposed to allow you to become self-conscious in a dream.

	The project was hit, in about 27 days the project raised nearly 400 thousand Canadian Dollars, in pledges. Kickstarter doesn’t charge users until the project has been on the site for a full thirty days. Beginning Friday and Saturday, some very interesting information began to surface. Many people have begun to question the legitimacy of the project. The project provided only a few photos, and the ones that were provided were suspicious. On Friday and Saturday a user on the site began questioning one of the photos. Pictured in the photo was a prototype, an amplifier, and a device to coordinate the two. The use explained how the reflection of the headband didn’t show the logo. In response to this, the creator brought up gamma (light levels) in certain parts of the images, reposted it, and called it a problem caused by a camera flash. You can see the difference between the original photo and the new photo. Using archives.org, proof was found that the image had been changed. If you take a look at the page here (http://goo.gl/sQbw30) and scroll down to “The Complete Prototype” section, you can see the original image. Now, if you take a look here (http://goo.gl/KRNZHo) and take a look at the same image, you can see the change in gamma on the headband and amplifier, despite the fact they are the same image.

The user that brought up the reflection continued to question the image. In the image, you can see a TDA7293 signal amplifier. The user explained how the amplifier was added in digitally, as was the logo on the headband. If you take a look a this image (http://goo.gl/RR6QTF), you can see the how the two look almost identical, including the orientation. If you take a look at the original image (http://goo.gl/8iQk30)of the prototype you can see the shadows on the amplifier and the cropped in amplifier from the first image are 100% identical. Therefore proof of digital editing. To disprove these allegations many users asked the creator to film a short clip that shows the prototype, the creator refused, claiming he was on vacation.

With the questioning of the images, users began to investigate the legitimacy of the people who claim to be running the project and the legitimacy of their company. The creator of the product is working under the company name GXP Technologies, which he claims is a sub division of a company called the “Caluka Group”. Neither one of these companies appears to be legitimate. There are no websites for either of these companies, no history, no news, nothing, the only thing that was discovered was a business registry for the “Caluka group”, and it was filed in 1998.

The next thing that aroused suspicion was the trademark. The creator of Luci claims to be a married man living in Montreal. As the titles notes, the name Luci is trademarked, or at least that’s what they said. According to the document here (http://goo.gl/uVDt9w), from Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Luci was trademarked back in 2003. The site notes that the current owner, Robert D. McDonald is living in New York City. The concept is trademarked as accounting software, which in no way fits the description of Luci.

	Users have worked together to find all of the evidence. Many users have reported this project to Kickstarter, reduced their pledge to $1 (This allows users to still comment on the project), or backed out all together. People have attempted to contact Kickstarter in many ways, Facebook, Twitter, and by using the Kickstarter support/report system. Even after all this effort and hard work, Kickstarter has done nothing, no response, no action, absolutely nothing. Countless users continue to back out from this project reducing or canceling their pledges. As seen on Kicktraq, a site that tracks activity on Kickstarter, the project has lost over 35 thousand Canadian Dollars in the last 24 hours. Now, users sit and wait wondering what Kickstarter will do, hoping that Kickstarter will stop this man from scamming all the people who he tricked.

Article by Ian Harbison