This post is part of our series on cool crowd-funded projects that are pushing forward technology in product development and introducing innovative product design. They’re all projects we’re contributing to as well. If you would like to participate and share your project or another you find interesting, submit it to kickit@www.solidsmack.com or let us know…

This post is part of our series on cool crowd-funded projects that are pushing forward technology in product development and introducing innovative product design. They’re all projects we’re contributing to as well. If you would like to participate and share your project or another you find interesting, submit it to kickit@www.solidsmack.com or let us know…

Barely coming off the heels of the OpenRov open-source underwater robot project he developed at TechShop, David Lang has since marketed himself as an ‘(unexpected maker) Maker’ to help ease those with weak knees into the Maker Movement. After losing his desk job, he decided that he would do something other than stare at the…

Sit up straight! Grit those teeth! DON’T MOVE. Here’s just one of the many items we missed in our predictions for this year. Hand-held camera scanners. We saw a slew of prototypes last year, from devices tied into a Kinect, like ReconstructMe, to slick, smaller versions like the ARMADA concept. Lynx Laboratories is preparing to…

While it probably should have been at least ‘considered’ by the Kickstarter devs awhile ago, the recently released Kickstarter Status Board is a free Google Chrome App that makes tracking social media, funds raised, and other details on a campaign easier to track.

In this brand spankin’ new mini-series we’ll be interviewing kickass individuals who lined up their targets successfully to launch their Kickstarter projects. In this first edition of the series, we’ll talk with Patrick Triato, Design Lead at Portland, Oregon-based Carbon Audio. Carbon Audio launched their Zooka Soundbar on Kickstarter and have since placed their product…

What does it take to launch a successful crowdfunded project? We talked with Jamie Siminoff (also the founder of the new crowdfunding site Christie Street) about his latest project, the Doorbot and what process he went through to launch his campaign.

Aiming to solve the myriad of problems that bog down Kickstarter projects, Entrepreneur Jamie Siminoff launched the new crowd funding site Christie Street with the goal of providing “a platform that gave inventors the support they needed to succeed.” Will the more filtered process of launching a project encourage more inventors to launch, or will…

James George and Jonathan Minard aren’t your average documentary filmmakers. Currently fellows at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University (try saying that with a mouth full of peanut butter), the two have used their media arts backgrounds to create a stunning interactive documentary that asks: “What does it feel like to…

The user experience considerations with pitcher-based water filtration systems over the years has been an interesting phenomenon to watch. From reusable vinyl stickers indicating the filter change-out cycle, to electronic timers embedded in the handles, filtered water has seen some impressive technological advances. With the success of subscription-based business models such as Dollar Shave Club…

Amazing new campaign out on Kickstarter – a lens attachment to give you, the iPhone user, the ability to scan an object and turn it into an OBJ, DXF or STL. So yes you can share your very best ‘ducklips’ over Facebook with an extra dimension of sheer silliness. The PhoneScope3D is placed over the…

What’s a 3D Printing revolution if companies go around suing each other for alleged patent infringement? Not much of one at all. This is the sentiment Joshua Harker is passing along in a recent letter to backers. You saw his new Anatomica di Revolutis Kickstarter campaign wherein a video compilation featured the “Top Brass” of…

The cold industrial look that is achieved when concrete is used has been getting more popularity lately as more designers are turning to the material for their final material directions. Now it’s ended up on Kickstarter in the form of a pen design. What other nontraditional uses has it been used for?

Speaking of laser cut toy creations, this Bandit gun Kickstarter project campaign just popped in our inbox. The Bandit gun is not only a rubberband gun–That would be lame and unnecessary with the skills you already have. This gun is a shotgun, with the deluxe ‘Sheriff’ version supporting three firing modes and, if ordered now,…

Yes, it’s a helicopter controlled by your brain. Something I never thought possible in my lifetime, let alone commercialized, but there you have it. The Puzzlebox Orbit is a toy chopper, the sort you fought for at Target on Black Friday. And had you avoided the hangry crowds you could have supported the Orbit on Kickstarter.…

3D Systems, the biggest and oldest 3D printing company in the World has filed litigation against Formlabs and their Form 1 printer. The infringement stems from one of 3D System’s stereolithography patents, a technique that uses a UV laser to selectively bind a vat of photoresin into a solid object. Not only that, Kickstarter is…

Released yesterday on Kickstarter, the sleek ORA Sound System is a case that surrounds your iPad with 8 deafening speakers and solves one of the only compromises with the iPad: sound quality. In addition to the recently Kickstarted Zooka and Sound Cover iPad speaker systems, why the sudden popularity and what are the differences?

Inspired by handmade wind-powered toys that he and his neighborhood friends lost in minefields in Qasaba, Kabul as children, designer Massoud Hassani revisits his homeland with an updated design of the toy that beautifully detects and destroys the mines.

If there’s anything that symbolizes the next industrial revolution, it’s a winged skull… with a Crooked Cairn hanging below it. If you have one of Joshua Harker’s 3D Printed Anatomica Filigre sculptures (and love his “tangle” art pieces), you probably wondered what he would create next to best it all. I present to you Anatomica…

GigaOM RoadMap examines how product design, user interfaces, and the underlying frameworks will evolve over the next several years to advance and humanize connected technology. The event was held yesterday, Monday November 5th in San Francisco and featured a wealth of insight from some of the leading designers and thinkers today.

Good news for our workshop/bedroom/garage Maker friends in the UK! Kickstarter has officially launched their UK Kickstarter page and with it, reasons to turn those loose ideas into golden opportunities.

Raising money on Kickstarter might be the next most difficult undertaking to raising children (or a crop of heirloom tomatoes), but a few projects have made it look easy. Bright Ideas is a book–a Crowdfuding Almanac–that goes straight to the source, with stories, lessons learned and a good dose of thick, gritty process from many…

I was really excited about this project (and still am) but Kickstarter has left a bad taste in my mouth with their silly policy change banning product renderings and simulations. That said, I’ll focus on the excitement I have for a project I jumped on earlier last week. Boys have robots, LEGO, and a ton…

I’ve marked today as the day I’ve seen the largest number of ‘WTF’s ever recorded by man… in the field of product development. Three new policies for product design and hardware projects were set in place by Kickstarter as described in their blog post, Kickstarter is Not a Store. It’s a game changer for those…

Hey, we haven’t done one of these in a while! What’s going on in Crowdfundland? Brilliant ideas? Or Annoying ones? We probably only notice the brilliant ones, because Kickstarter filters search results to prevent the unsuccessful campaigns from appearing. Hey Google indexes the internet so I only get the most ‘cited’ pages out there. Same…

While some are worrying about high-efficiency this and fuel-economic that, others are putting the electrons pulsing through their cognitive, übercreative brain cages to much better use creating “an open-source, 18ft wide, 4,000 pound, 6-legged hydraulic robot that you can ride.” Project Hexapod is a robotics class turned Kickstarter project that hit its initial funding goal…

Thomas Edison would have been impressed if he was alive today and could see what’s coming out of Kickstarter. Zombie Edison is impressed and wants your braaaaains. Some argue, Edison never invented to much – he just had the money to hire the right people (like Nicola Tesla) and get them to churn out ideas, cherry picking…

Whether you’re recharging your mind with coffee or recharging your iPhone, you want to do it with style, you want to do it with ease and of course say, you want to say, I saw it on Solidsmack and bought it on Kickstarter. This week we bring your two projects that are crucial to charging…

This is a short video of three cars printed by Objet. These tiny 3D printed carsare all created the same way, re-sized and re-printed by the Objet Eden350 3D Printing machines. Watch this video – I couldn’t believe the resolution to make such small things was possible – printed, pre-assembled – My first thought? Monopoly pieces.…

Rumour has it that Kickstarter will be going international by the end of 2012. This is freaking awesome, as I live in the frozen reaches of Canada, and know quite a few other people stymied by the rules as well. Indiegogo is great for non-US makers and creators with a super idea and insufficient funds…

Kickstarter is awash with iPhone, iPad and other Apple paraphernalia – it speaks the website’s yuppie creators and contributors – not that it’s a bad thing (Apple user here). After going through the website to make a long-overdue edition of Solidsmack’s ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’, I discovered that many of the best, most funded projects…

So, you’ve started a Kickstarter project. You’re one of 12 contenders for a $25,000 dollar prize. It all relies on one thing… The vote OF THE MASSES. I know, maybe you’re not one of the 12, but someone, somewhere in the depths of crowd-funded project dependence is, and feels pain just like you, the pain…

Great gobs of gravy! If you think you can launch a highly technical project on Kickstarter and get funded with $2,000 pledges, in less than 24 hours, you would be RIGHT. Your name would also be Michael Joyce. Mike’s B9Creator kickstarter project has met the $50,000 goal and is nearing $100,000 after less than two…

What’s going on in the world of Crowdfunding? Amazing things! But before I get into this edition of “Wisdom of the Crowd”, I’d like to point out that Maxifab has beat its target of $5,000, pulling in a whopping $24,393 and iZen Bamboo Keyboard past its goal of $18,000 reaching $26,436. Pretty kickass if you ask…

If you’re an iPad user soaking in the retina display rays of the latest tablet tech, you’re flipping open a cover that’s flimsy, only allows viewing at 10 degrees off a flat surface and doesn’t even stick to the magnets you’ve embedded in your abs. That’s about to change in a flippin’ big way. The…

You know what’s amazing about Crowdfunding? You’re not just buying something – you’re helping make it happen. If I had seen any of these projects on a blog or at a store I would say “Neat-o… Im glad someone made this.” And you know, I might buy it. Now I see these projects and I know…

There’s a little site called Kickstarter. It has a lot of amazing crowdfunded projects on it and, like us, you may have a mild, vein-slapping addiction to it. If so, these are two that you’ll want to check out. One has exceeded its funding by leaps and bounds. The other is just about to break…

We all know what happens when you sit young children down at a high-speed pottery wheel. It’s not pretty, especially when the cat is used to ‘improve carving technique.’ However, clay provides endless hours of moldable entertainment for young minds. Add an iPad to the mix and you’ve got days of pure, clean finger-jabbing fun.…

I know star-shaped owls can be a bit nightmarish, especially the rabid ones with three eyes and wolf fangs, but this one is guaranteed not to carry you or your babies off in the night. Grant Miller of FigureBang is a toy makin’, 3D printin’ He-man fan from San Francisco, California and he’s in the…

Moving dirt. Mixing concrete. Inspiring people. Not something you want to do with a spoon, a bucket and lots of screaming. Especially when your goal is to create entire civilizations from scratch. Typically, you would need a few dozers, a backhoe or three and a lot more money to throw at materials and manufacturing equipment.…

If you’ve ever mistakenly drank ferromagnetic fluid thinking it was coffee, you’re likely dead, or highly magnetized and sitting at In-n-Out gnawing on a burger dressed like Magneto. I am… right now actually, staring into the screen at the Kickstarter project David Markus has launched. Ferrite – Interactive Liquid Sculpture is a visual display of…

3D modeling apps can’t make it to the web soon enough and Chris Chalmers of Bios Design Collective could very well be pointing the way. His new, custom lamp fab site Fabripod is the foundation of a Kickstarter project set out to combine 3D design and web based visualization in a ingenious way… and as…

You’ve got loads of ideas from portable candy launchers to cheese grating iPhone cases, but steps in the process (and your evil arch-nemesis Tim “criticizes everything” Jerksteen) has got your design mojo, motionless. Never fear! Another idea funding, “slam that design process in the face,” product site is here and it’s absolutely delicious… in fact,…

Every once in a while, something so cool comes along that it makes you stop whittling that sopping wet piece of MDF and stab the jack knife right in your leg meat. This is one of those things. Today, FurnLab has launched their Open Source CNC project on Kickstarter. Headed up by Jeffrey Matthias, they’re…

Yes. I did just tell you last week to go fund ShapeOko on Kickstarter. But some of you looked at it and thought that you needed an already proven design, and some input on new features. Man, you’re picky… but you’re also in luck! DIYLILCNC is just the machine for you and for 40 or…

Ever built a CNC machine? I have. You never, ever hit your budget. Usually it’s because you don’t count on shipping costs or having to deal with sourcing hardware/parts from many different distributors. If you’re trying to recreate a project from instructables, you obviously missed the part where the author failed to mention he spent years…

What’s slightly less/more awesome than driving cool cars? Drawing them. Making sound effects while turning red and eventually passing out just adds to the enjoyment. I Draw Cars can help. A project started by product designer Matt Marrocco and car designer Adam Hubers, it brings their car sketching passion and knowledge to you via the…

You may be familiar with the new crowd-funding product design craze. It’s ridiculous. The number of projects achieving funding is amazing. We’ve featured some on here and know of others who are preparing to launch their ideas into the crowd cashing cosmos. Recently, two interesting projects popped up which show how a small team is…

Why it was just a couple months ago that we wrote about a design outfit named Swarm. They were convinced that everyone with a bike could use a bike clamp which doubled as a bottle opener. They still are. Swarm has relaunched their Bike Clamp/Bottle Opener project, but this time the goal is a paltry…

Set down those bottled brews. Really, stop prying them against your dear friends collar bone. There’s a better way to pop the top then hop on your ride. It has everything to do with highly machinable, lightweight 6061 aluminum and an array of anodized colors to make your bike pals snap your lycra… hey! Your…