Hackaday just put out some of their “rules” for publishing OSHW.  They cover many of the items that we have discovered and adopted as part of developing Holoseat.

My favorite quote is “and now it’s 7 years later and people are STILL asking you for the source code.”  A variation of that story is exactly how Holoseat went from this one-off thing I made to a full fledged project and eventually a business.  Thanks Bryan for the persistence required to jump start Holoseat!

You’ve just finished your project. Well, not finished, but it works and you’ve solved all the problems worth solving, and you have a thing that works for you. Then you think about shari…

Source: The Anxiety of Open Source: Why We Struggle With Putting It Out There

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This duo have learned a few things while manufacturing products in their home, they’re happy to share too!

Source: Manufacturing At Home With Evan & Katelyn | Make:

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Check out this great post from Adafruit about the history of Cherry MX keyboard switches.  For those who don’t know, we love the Cherry MX.   In fact, the enable button on the Holoseat controller is a Cherry MX keyboard switch with a custom back-lit key displaying our logo (the LED is orange, of course).  Be sure to watch the embedded factory tour video, it is much fun.

Tedium dives into the history of the Cherry switch company and how they went from microswitches to those sweet MX keyboard switches on all of our desktops. Chery received a patent for it’s fi…

Source Adafruit Blog:
The History of Cherry MX Keyboard Switches @CherryMX

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IKR. Ugh exercise

I saw what could be called a snarky link over on Reddit the other day – Scientists find, if exercise is intrinsically rewarding – it’s enjoyable or reduces stress – people will respond automatically to their cue and not have to convince themselves to work out. Instead of feeling like a chore, they’ll want to exercise.  I suggest skipping the comments and heading on over to the fine article, because the research in question is not as self-evident as it might appear (and it is backed by actual data).

The core of the research, courtesy of Iowa State University, is that the key to maintaining a workout habit is using intrinsic rewards.  Intrinsic rewards are those which satisfy internal satisfaction or pleasure versus external motivation.  For exercise, intrinsic motivation often boils down to actually enjoying workouts (which, let’s face it, is not all that common in the gamer community).  Contrast this with the usual external motivation for working out such as wanting to lose a few pounds or instructions from a doctor.  Sure, the external motivation might get us to try working out, but experience and evidence from the studies in the link above show the external motivation is unlikely to support a long term exercise habit.

This is the secret of the Holoseat.  Using Holoseat ties exercise to an activity that already has high intrinsic reward (enough to consume hours a day and a steady stream of cash from our wallets) – gaming!  This is how I was able to lose 45 pounds in 18 months of playing MMOs.  More importantly, this is why we are turning Holoseat into a product, so you can use gaming to turn exercise into a long lasting habit of your own!

Stay tuned for more news as we go through developing Holoseat. Better yet, sign up for our newsletter — you’ll get updates straight to your inbox.

The post The Science Behind Holoseat (or, Why Holoseat Works) appeared first on Model B.