Kickstarter had a huge year, backing projects that will influence new technological innovations in the years to come. Sometimes, the best ideas don't come from multi-billion dollar companies, but individuals and groups who have a sincere vision for change. According to Kickstarter's 2014 first quarter numbers, 4,497 projects were successfully funded by backers, 7 funded-films were nominated for Oscars, and 3/10 of the most funded projects happened this year. I feel confident in saying that Kickstarter has been a blessing for individual thinkers and makers. The projects that did the best this year were truly one-of-a-kind, while a few had some ups and downs. One thing they all have in common is their amazing funding specs, all surpassing their original goals.

The most funded campaign: The most funded project this year was also considered as the largest Kickstarter campaign ever. It's the Coolest Cooler, a seriously goofy but multi-functional cooler including an array of gadgets . The Coolest Cooler even out ran the highly successful Pebble Smartwatch from 2012, raising over $13 million dollars; $5 million of that coming to the company in just one week's time. As of today, the coolest Cooler has some cool upgrades in store, and will be shipping sometime during the summer of 2015. For just $299, the cooler comes with a USB, Bluetooth Outdoor Speaker with dual drivers, blender, accessory deck, and more.

What about those 3D printers? Of the countless 3D printers you've probably heard about this year, a couple of them that made waves came from Kickstarter. The Micro 3D Printer raised $3,401,361, after only asking for $50,000, making it the 3rd most successful campaign this year. Said to be designed for everyone, the 2.2-pound Micro is only $299, lets you download models and print, and only uses 1/10th of the power that other 3D printers use.

There's another 3D printer worth noting, not for being super successful, but for canceling due to an unfortunate turn of events. The Mota 3D, according to Tech Crunch, is “generally sitting in a quasi-limbo state”, due to it turning out “too good to be true”. Known as the cheapest 3D printer to ever be manufactured (at that time), the $99 Mota was simply not good enough quality, and for that reason, the company decided to keep customers from the suffering of a bad product.

Fun Ideas: Another chart topper this year went to the 3Doodler, a pen that can draw in the air by using instant-drying 3D printing filament! After pledging $30,000, the “world's first and only” 3D printing pen made over $2,000,000.

Another $2 million dollar idea was the SCiO, a pocket sensor that scans the world around you and relays its information to your smartphone. I could find much practicality in carrying a SCiO around, for the pure enjoyment of seeing how smart it can be. Go ahead and tell me about that apple, SCiO. I dare you.

Highly Popular Idea: The Mozilla Matchstick HDMI, a $25 (only $12 for early birds) media streaming dongle that went up against the Chromecast at just the right time (ahem, competition!). The Matchstick company teamed up with Firefox to bring a completely open hardware and software platform, which became wildly popular, raising over 4 times its $100,000 goal.

Failed!: Canadian startup, Brand and Grotesque, had an interesting dream to alter a video game controller into a blood sucking machine, and it didn't go so well. Dubbed Blood Sport, the controller was modified with a blood collection system that took the player's blood whenever he or she suffered from a wound in game. With original intent to gather the blood for donation purposes, outsiders didn't find this appealing. Kickstarter soon suspended the project without notice, and we haven't heard anything since.

Speaking of suspension, the plug-in Internet router said to “make your online activity anonymous” called Anonabox started out out as a success, but ended up as a controversial flop. The company mislead funders into believing its hardware was custom made. This was quickly proven wrong as followers found the exact casing for sale on a Chinese website. As far as software, serious security shortcomings more or less pissed off customers, causing more and more controversy. As of November, Anonabox came back from the dead, ending up on Indiegogo for just $51. The new version, “gen 5”, claims to have addressed the previous criticisms.

We've Been Waiting: The best things in life are worth waiting for. In this case, we've been waiting for Ubi, an always-on, voice-activated plug in that connects to the web. After two years of beta testing, UCIC ensured its device was ready for consumers. No rejections or suspensions here. For $299, it works by using Google's speech-to-text software to answer your questions, play your favorite music from SoundCloud, and command smart devices in your home.

Countless others are worth mentioning, but at least we know the companies are doing and striving well. If 2014 was this impressive for makers and inventors, I can't wait to see what 2015 brings. I'll check back with you next year, Cheers.