Not many computers can thank GIFs for their existence. In 2013, Dave Rauchwerk worked on a San Francisco art installation that allowed people to record and project a GIF of themselves onto a building. It was popular and led to Rauchwerk joining with two friends to start a hardware company called Next Thing Co. Their aim? To create a camera that can capture GIFs for $100. After a long stay in China with the HAX Accelerator, Next Thing Co. launched OTTO, a $250 "hackable GIF camera" in 2014.

We're 30 years removed from the final episodes of the original Knight Rider, the hit series in which David Hasselhoff was aided in his crime fighting by automotive artificial intelligence assistant, KITT. But that doesn't mean that we're not still clinging on for the perfect in-car AI system -- and thanks to new Kickstarter Dashbot, we may not be waiting too much longer. Heck, it even has the quasi-retro interface working in its favor! Dashbot is a smart AI assistant, designed to be 100 percent voice-controlled so drivers keep their hands on the wheel and, just as importantly, their eyes on the road. Connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth, it promises to be the on-the-road smart assistant we have been hankering after.

Today's most popular low-end VR headset, Google Cardboard, uses your phone to transport you to alien worlds. But there's another inexpensive option, one that lets you play 3D games using just a palm-sized computer and a 3D-printed face mask, no phone required. Pockulus is a 49 portable game console that fastens to your face, much like a Cardboard viewer. At its heart is a tiny computer called the CHIP, a hacker-friendly circuit board that sells on its own for just 9. Pockulus is the creation of the Oakland-based hardware collective Next Thing Co., which had already seen success with the tiny CHIP computer and was investigating other applications for it. But the idea of repurposing the CHIP as a VR controller was actually conceived as an April Fools' Day joke.