Tracking

Latest articles

Article

Moddler Brings Star Wars Holochess to Life with 3D Printing

Ever wonder how the fantastical creatures you see in Star Wars are brought to life? There are some incredible tools at the hands of filmmakers, animators and producers these days, one of which is 3D printing. So when Lucasfilm wanted to re-animate the lovable holochess game in The Force Awakens, they worked with Academy Award […]

Article

Inspiration Board: Our 6 Favorite Crowdfunded Hardware Projects of 2015

Here at Fictiv, we’ve been known to spend a little bit of our workday gaining inspiration from all the creative, exciting, and just plain crazy crowdfunded projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. And aren’t you glad we do? Because here, without further ado, are our six favorite crowdfunded projects of 2015! 1. ShiftWear: Hipster sneakers you can […]

Article

The Second Coming of VR: This Time It’s “Real”

Back in the 1990’s, virtual reality (VR) was a big thing. The next big thing, the media sang enthralled. Trouble was, the technology infrastructure wasn’t built out to allow any sort of appreciable user base to develop, and so VR stayed on the fringes, its tentative flames kept alive by a small contingent of diehard […]

Article

Hardware Weekly | Vol 96

The week’s top hardware news. March 4th, 2016. Products Kiddie STEM Kit If these are the toys children play with these days, can’t help but wonder what rockets they’ll be building by 7th grade. Take $100 Tio, a STEM kit available on Kickstarter, that features loose tech parts (wheels, pulleys, adaptors) to encourage mini makers […]

Article

People Are Not Things: How to Build Healthy Culture

Growing up, books and the people they contained were the most important thing in my life. The characters I read about dramatically influenced my personal philosophy, whether it was the compassion of Jean Valjean or the fierce protectiveness of Jo March. One of my favorite series is the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, which introduced […]

Article

The Zen of Product Design: How Lockitron Let Go of the Extraneous and Non Essential

Entrepreneurs are known for falling so hard for their own products that they can’t see past all the fancy features. Not to knock all those labors of love, but when it comes to building products that work (and brands that last), a little cool-headed distance goes a long way. Certain industries lend themselves better to […]

Article

Hardware Weekly | Vol 95

The week’s top hardware news. February 26th, 2016 Products The Planet is Your Playground If the thought of laser tag still gets you excited (we know it does; us, too!), then you’ll probably sense the potential of this $18 gadget that can turn your surroundings into an Augmented Reality first person shooter game. Just think […]

Article

Your Prototyping Toolbox

There are a ton of different tools available for prototyping hardware. But how do you know which tool is the right one at any given time? One of the main properties we look at to determine whether or not a tool is appropriate for a given design phase is repeatability. Repeatability refers to the ability […]

Article

5 Options for Building Large Scale Prototypes

3D printing is a fantastic solution for building fast, cheap prototypes. Small enclosures? Piece of cake. 5 variations of a door handle? No problem. But what happens when your dimensions surpass that of a 3D printer build bed? Here are a few alternative methods for building prototypes larger than 1-2 ft. 1. 2-Dimensional Cutters CNC […]

Article

Hardware Weekly | Vol 94

The week’s top hardware news. February 19th, 2016 Products Music You Can Swallow Audiopill is an experimental device for enjoying music, one that you need to, well, swallow. “It will make you feel like you are standing in the middle of a concert hall with a powerful audio system inside your body,” so says conceptual artist […]