Mimic Artfully Employs LEDs In Fashion

November 24, 2019 by Lewin Day 6 Comments

Any science fiction piece set in the near-future involves clothes that light up or otherwise have some form of electronics inside. This hasn’t happened in mainstream fashion just yet, but [Amped Atelier] are doing serious work in the field. Mimic was their entry for the 2016 MakeFashion Gala, serving as a great example of LEDs in fashion done right.

Mimic consists of two pieces, designed as cocktail dresses that mimic their surroundings, in much the same way as a chameleon. LEDs are controlled by an Arduino, fitted with a colour sensor. When activated, the Arduino can change the color of the LEDs to match whatever is presented to the sender. This technology could serve as a great way to avoid clashing with a friend’s outfit, or to send a surreptitious signal to your ride that you’re ready to leave.

The LEDs are hidden beneath attractive geometric diffusers, which are 3D printed directly on to the fabric of the outfit. This gives an attractive, finished look to the garment, and allows the diffusers to naturally flow with the lines of the piece.

These pieces show that it’s possible to create glowable night wear that is as stylish as it is high tech. If you’re looking for something a little edgier however, we’ve got that too. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Mimic Artfully Employs LEDs In Fashion” →

Build Yourself A Set Of Glowing Wings

October 21, 2019 by Lewin Day 12 Comments

Humans didn’t come with wings from the factory, and most efforts to fit them after the fact have been at least as far as flight is concerned, largely fruitless. That doesn’t mean you can’t cut a devastatingly sharp aesthetic though, and [Natalina’s] fiber optic wings are a great way to do just that.

The wings are a leathercraft project, consisting of a harness worn around the torso. This serves as the mounting point for the fiber optics, as well as the RGB Critter flashlight used to drive the lightshow. Leather parts are lasercut to the right shape, making it easy to create the delicate feather shapes in the design. The pieces are then dyed appropriately and sewn together into the final shape. Bundles of optical fibers are then wound through the harness, sprouting from either shoulder of the wearer. EVA foam is used to help create the right shape for the wings, allowing the different layers to remain separated to create more visual depth.

It’s a build that looks absolutely striking at night, and unlike some other wing-based cosplays, doesn’t have as many drawbacks as far as crowds and transportation. It would make a killer look if you’re going as a Hacker Angel for Halloween this.

Makers certainly know how to craft some cutting-edge wearables. Got your own sweet build? Throw it at the tips line!

Laser Crown Shines At Night

September 16, 2019 by Lewin Day 6 Comments

Sometimes you need something really flashy to complete an outfit. Whether it’s a sparkly pair of earrings or a stylish necklace, accessories are key to competing on the fashion battlefield. For those who want to bring some serious firepower, [p3nguin’s] laser crown might be just what the doctor ordered.

At the outset, we should state the crown only uses lasers in its construction, for cutting felt and acrylic. The light source is a Neopixel ring from Adafruit, capable of bringing the vibrant colors without risk of eye damage. The ring is then assembled with a series of snap-together acrylic parts and a felt cap, with slots for hair pins to keep the crown in place on the wearer’s head. A Trinket drives the show, with a LiPo battery used as a lightweight power supply.

It’s a nice build that’s sure to draw plenty of attention. We see some great wearables around these parts; this EL jacket is a particular favorite. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Laser Crown Shines At Night” →

This Heads Up Display Is All Wet

August 29, 2019 by Al Williams 18 Comments

Athletes have a long history of using whatever they can find to enhance their performance or improve their training. While fitness tracker watches are nothing new, swimmers have used them to track their split times, distance, and other parameters. The problem with fitness trackers though is that you have to look at a watch. FORM has swim goggles that promise to address this, their smart goggles present the swimmer with a heads-up display of metrics. You can see a slick video about them below.

The screen is only on one eye, although you can switch it from left to right. The device has an inertial navigation system and is — of course — waterproof. It supposedly can withstand depths up to 32 feet and lasts 16 hours on a charge. It can use Bluetooth to send your data to your phone in addition to the display.

Continue reading “This Heads Up Display Is All Wet” →

Rocket Jacket Looks Sharp For CCCamp 2019

August 20, 2019 by Lewin Day 2 Comments

Making your own clothing can be fun, but it’s even better if you can throw some LEDs into the mix and give a new meaning to the term “glow up”. [arturo182] did just that with this custom rocket jacket for CCCamp2019.

We’re getting kind of a stained-glass vibe here.

To create the jacket, a 3D printed frame was created in the shape of CCCamp’s rocket logo. This was then filled with hot glue to act as a diffuser, and fitted with WS2818B LEDs. A Digispark is used as the microcontroller, with its compactness serving well for the wearable application. The assembly is then sewn into the back of a hoodie, with cardboard used on the inside as a backer to help keep things flat and support the weight of the hardware.

Hot glue works great as a diffuser in this application, and animation is easy thanks to the addressable LEDs used in the construction. It’s a great way to get a neon-like look, and we fully expect to see more of these glowy wearables in future!

Neat Smart(ish) Watch Build Uses BLE

June 17, 2019 by Richard Baguley 6 Comments

Digital watches are a pretty neat idea, and are a great way to experiment with designing and building low-power circuits. That’s what [Eric Min] did with this neat smart watch build. It’s based around an nRF52832 SoC that does all of the heavy lifting, including connecting to a smartphone to get the time when the battery is replaced. It also has a decent quantity of blinky LEDs, which is important on any project of this type.

Continue reading “Neat Smart(ish) Watch Build Uses BLE” →

Wii Nunchuk Gets A Built-in Raspberry Pi Zero

May 13, 2019 by Tom Nardi 3 Comments

The Wii controller will likely go down in history as the hacker’s favorite repurposed input device, and there’s no question that the Raspberry Pi is the community’s top pick in terms of Linux single board computers. So it should come as little surprise that somebody has finally given us the cross-over episode that the hacking community deserves: the PiChuk, a Pi Zero inside of Nintendo’s motion-sensing “nunchuk”.

Veterans of Wii Sports might be wondering how the hero of our story, a hacker by the name of [keycaps], managed to pull off such a feat. The Pi Zero is small, but it’s not that small. The trick is that the case of the nunchuk has been extended by way of a new 3D printed bottom half.

There’s more than just a Pi Zero along for the ride, as well. [keycaps] has manged to sneak in a 750 mAh LiPo and an Adafruit Powerboost, making the device a completely self-contained system. Interestingly, the original nunchuk PCB remains more or less untouched, with just a couple of wires connected to the Pi’s GPIO ports so it can read the button and stick states over I2C.

We know you’re wondering why [keycaps] went through the trouble of breaking out the HDMI port on the bottom. It turns out, the PiChuk is being used to drive a Vufine wearable display; think Google Glass, but without the built-in computing power. The analog stick and motion sensing capabilities of the controller should make for a very natural input scheme, as far as wearable computers go.

So not only could the PiChuk make for an awesome wireless input device for your next project, it’s actually a pretty strong entry into the long line of wearable computing devices based on the Pi. Usually these have included a DIY version of the distinctive Google Glass display, but offloading that onto a commercially available version is certainly a lot easier.