If you’ve played Cyberpunk 2077, you might have seen the rad jacket that has a screen in the collar. Once upon a time, such a thing would be solely the preserve of science fiction—you certainly wouldn’t be achieving that look with cathode ray tubes, that much is for sure. However, technology has advanced to the point where [Zibartas] was able to produce just such a jacket in real life.
The key to the build is the advent of the flexible OLED screen. [Zibartas] was able to source four such panels in a smartphone-like aspect ratio, which came in at the hefty price of $300 each. Two Raspberry Pi 4s were enlisted to drive two screens each. The older model Pi was chosen as it was capable of achieving a neat hack to better play smooth video across two displays. A rudimentary sync system was whipped up using GPIO pins to keep video from both Pis playing together. From there, it was simply a matter of figuring out how to create a structure to hold the screens within the large collar of the scratch built cyberpunk-styled jacket. As it turns out they don’t actually flex much in the final install, as they’re held in a 3D printed structure to keep them safe from damage.
The final result is quite something, very accurately recreating the jacket from the game itself. While technically a simple build, actually pulling it off required some delicate work and smart design decisions to make it practical to wear. We’ve featured some other fun jackets over the years, too.
“you certainly wouldn’t be achieving that look with cathode ray tubes, that much is for sure.”
No, that much is not sure. One could have one or several CRTs strapped in the back, and projecting an image on a screen in the collar., akin to rear-projection TVs.
You could have made an electroluminescent display back in the 60’s. Making a graphical display wouldn’t have been practical, but a simple segmented display would have been.
Let’s not forget the flat crt’s from the watchman that are barely a over an inch thick and the electronics to give decent battery life using common cells
Wearing 4 screens and 2 raspberry pis in your clothes is wild
I love the idea of LEDs and electronics in fashion, have considered this kind of project myself, but for the sake of our planet i hope this trend never catches on in the general population
Can you even imagine the environmental disaster of a fast-fashion company like H&M or Shein spewing this much volume of electronic components in t-shirts or jackets ?
We’re already starting to see big improvements in stuff like print-in-place PCBs / sensor textiles and conductive threads that can be easily sewed into fabric.
Eventually it will reach a point where it’s gonna be affordable at scale.
I love that talented people can show off prototypes but I’m really afraid they’ll help create more demand for another good-looking but ethically questionable concept.
The word you’re looking for is…recycling.
That’s got to be one of the most delusional answers I’ve ever read on this site
Recycling is not a magical thing that allows you to mindlessly consume without consequences.
The simplest, single material items like PET bottles don’t even get fully recycled and the part that does usually has to be mixed with newer material to be usable.
PCBs are made of extremely diverse materials assembled in extremely complex processes.
You can’t just dump a board into a shredder and magically recover everything in it.
Disassembling the enclosures and fasteners alone is an engineering nightmare at these scales.
Then you run into the issue of separating the FR4 board from its copper layers, components, encapsulated ICs…
Educate yourself before trying to be sarcastic
now all we need to do is engineer some eyeballs on the back of dudebro’s neck so he can obtain the information being projected on it
Never played the game. I am assuming it is just a fashion statement. After all LEDs in shoes are very common for kids and adults spend thousands on attire. It is pretty neat that it is entirely feasible to jam a bunch of monitors in your clothes and not be uncomfortable with it.
Lmfao it’s not for the wearer to watch it’s for people walkong by to see and turn their heads and exclaim “WTF?!” to their equally flabbergasted friend(s).
I think the final product is great, but with execution I’m wondering if there’s some micro projector system you could do. Or maybe addressable strips, although I know pixel density would be seriously harmed.
Cyber Punk my ass..
only if I can Cyber Punk mine too.
I’m just not sure if I want the screens to be rear facing, or rear facing..
Now he needs to rig up a web interface to let bystanders play Doom on it
This!!
That would be amazing!
Gonna combo this with a naruto headband, samurai sword, fedora, and some cargo shorts. Nobody will ever equal my drip
Change samurai sword to extra long replica of Buster Sword from Final Fantasy.
Also, you forgot about attaching a powerful bluetooth speaker to your backpack and walking around blasting Studio Ghibli songs for everybody around to enjoy.
For ultimate street cred you could add a Rainbow Dash tattoo on one of your shins.
With such gear you never again need to worry about catching STDs or causing unwanted pregnancies.
Goodness it is like those rainbow led visors never happened.