[Agy] a fabric hacker in Singapore has made a chic light sensitive LED necklace, and written up the tutorial on her blog Green Issues by Agy. The lovely thing about this hack is that it doesn’t look like a breadboard round her neck, and most of the non-electronic components have been upcycled. [Agy] even used Swarovski crystals as LED diffusers for extra bling.
Using a LilyPad Arduino with a light sensor and a few LEDs, [Agy’s] circuit is not complicated. She seems to be just branching out in to wearable tech, so it is nice that she learnt to program different modes for bright and low light (see video below). Her background in sewing, refashioning and upcycling does show through in her crafty use of an old pair of jeans and lace scraps for this project.
We love tech focused jewelry like [TigerUp’s] LED matrix pendants or [Armilar’s] Nixie-ify Me Necklace, but they do scream Geek. DIY electronically enhanced accessories are becoming more commonplace with the variety of micro-controller platforms expanding rapidly. Low energy wearable boards like MetaWear are making it easy for the tech to be discreet and easily connected to your smartphone. 3D printing is enabling us to create durable enclosures, settings and diffusers like the ones used for LED Stegosaurus Spikes. With all these things, hobby wearable projects can not only be functional and durable, but can also look great too.
Do you think this necklace would look out of place in a non-geeky gathering? Have you got any helpful tips for [Agy’s] code? Have you tried using gems or crystals as diffusers and what were the results? Let us know in the comments below.
It looks like she hanged some fancy pants on her neck, seriously.
Looks chic? Looks heavy to me? Does he have a matching handbag?
I’m looking forward to seeing the handbag too.
Yes, tre chic. From the glass-doorknob-turned-into-a-ring school, no? It is so fantastic that I upcycled my lunch. It is part of the Enforced Chastity collection I believe. Before showing these things in public, ask yourself “What would Dilbert say?”
Are you sure you know what “chic” means?
‘Stylish’ or ‘smart’, so apt in either case.
I like how wannabee engineers are commenting on fashion. It’s like a gardener trying to indent code.
FYI: our gardener has two Android apps with a third in the works. You don’t have to have a certain “specialty” in order to have an opinion or skill on any given topic.
I can garden and code. Everyone should garden for healthy bees.
I hate the term ‘upcycled’.
Look chic? It looks more like a chandelier to me. That is where those crystals came from isn’t it?
lame
I’ve helped my cousin with a couple of projects while she was at the FIT in New York. Few things we noticed when trying to play with fashion and light and trying to make it look not nerdy. The led shouldnt be the cool part of your fashion object, they are just an accent. Hide the led deep inside of something or make it very diffuse, in her case seashell art that had a faint glow inside the shells. Glow in the dark powder comes in really good colors and is often a better and simpler option, again you dont want to see the powder, we used it on the underside of jewellery leaves for a subtle backglow when light changes.
Glow in the dark powder is a great idea. I’ll have to try it sometime. Thanks.
Any pics or video of your cousin’s work?
I really shouldn’t be able to look at the subject of a post and think “Hmm, there’s probably going to be a bunch of insular complaints about this”, and be right about it.
What’s the deal people? It should be a cool thing when people outside of “traditional” engineering circles use new tools to create new things.
Are your ego’s that fragile or your imagination that weak that you have no room for anything outside your comfort zone?
To mis-quote Forest Gump – Ugly is as Ugly does. I’m pretty sure ego or imagination has nothing to do with it, the things a ginormous piece of ugly, and even non-fashion designers can spot that.
Of course, the title does kind of prompt these comments, if you’re going to call something “chic”, you better be sure it’s actually chic before you call it that.
I’m guessing if the title was “Blinky LED Necklace that’s kind of clever” wouldn’t have garnered as many snarky comments.
But what would Troll-a-day be without a vicious and hypercritical comment thread?
It seems to me people are responding to the editor’s characterization (“chic”) rather than the thing itself. It’d be kind of cool if I hadn’t just read a blurb trying to convince me it’s stylish. I can imagine someone who could pull it off, but suffice it to say it wouldn’t be as serious, unironic jewelry.
I may not know fashion, but I know gaudy when I see it.
Ok, I’ll just come to the point.
It’s BIG AND UGLY.
Why not just hang a big laptop LCD around your neck?
Or put a LCD panel on a stick and prance around with a Horse Head costume.
Wait, that’s already been done. Was that “chic” too?
An LCD panel with an image of an old time alarm clock on it. Now we’re o to something!
I’ll add this to my comment.
I’m not that much into wearable blinky LED’s and stuff.
So technically it may be OK, I’m speaking just from an standpoint about how it looks. Does it NEED to be that big? I would think something more subtle would be a bit better. I mean, would you wear that even without the blinkies? Don’t be making stuff, and making it extra large, just so you can add more blinky to it.
Take something you would normally wear, and add blinkies to that.
I don’t really want to discourage somebody from making stuff, anything, just because it doesn’t look good (in my opinion, but then again, I need granimals for adults because I have no taste).
That’s why I say, technically, it may be very good. But from an aesthetics standpoint, no I don’t like it.
Yep, style is subjective and no-one likes everything that fashion throws out at them.
Regarding the size – I did fail to mention above that in Agy’s original post, she described it as a ‘bib necklace’, which is a fashion trend at the moment and they do tend to be big.
Looks like a bedazzled bib necklace. The sheer strap just doesn’t fit, too narrow, different color.
Apparently this is some new usage of the word ‘chic’ with which I was not previously familiar. (With apologies to Douglas Adams)
Seriously, that is one major collection of hideous.
Nice work [Agy]! It’s cool how you hid the circuits behind something non-electronic-looking. I’ve been thinking about trying to make my own techy necklace. One of these days maybe… :)
Am I alone it not wanting to see this type of stuff posted here?
No but we can’t hurt a girl’s feelings; and they can make fun of our fashion. This is hackaday, not the cosmopolitan or people magazine…
Nope. I had to double check the URL because for a moment, I thought I was on the Adafruit blog…
There are websites for fashion and crafting all-day-long, this website should NOT be one of them. Nor would I expect see “Raspberry Pi Remote Audio Link” on f*ing Pintrest… Diversity is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t belong EVERY FUCKING WHERE.
This reminds me of that Sonichu medallion that Christian Weston Chandler used to wear around his neck. Why are wearable electronics so god damn LAME? Must be nice to live in a world without ignorance and bullies. LMAO!!!!