Book excerpt: While fabrication technologies have been in use in industry for several decades, expiring patents have recently allowed the technology to spill over to technology-enthusiastic "makers." Personal Fabrication looks at the massive, disruptive changes that are likely to be seen in interactive computing, as well as to computing as a whole. It discusses six main challenges that need to be addressed for this change to take place, and explains researchers in HCI will play a key role in tackling these challenges.