adafruit industries blog » wearables

Developing Spray-On Fabric #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Fabrican’s long road to commercialization on Core77:

Don’t get us wrong, Fabrican is amazing. But it is not new, and serves as a reminder of just how long it can take to bring a good idea to market, and how dogged inventors need to be. Manel Torres first conceived of Fabrican way back in 1995, when he was an RCA student studying fashion design, after watching a friend get sprayed with Silly String. Torres began to collaborate with chemical engineers, and by 2000 he’d filed a patent and set up R&D facilities at Imperial College London.

Three years later Torres formed Fabrican Ltd., and another three years went by before the blogosphere picked up on the stuff. Here in 2013, seven years later, there are still no announcements for commercialization; the “News” section of Fabrican’s website saw its last update in 2010.

Has Torres given up? Doesn’t look like it, as he’s delivered several Fabrican-based TED Talks as recently as last year. We can only speculate as to what’s preventing the appearance of Fabrican on store shelves, which is what we’d really like to see; while Torres is proposing industrial solutions targeted at the medical, automotive and fashion design industries, we think selling the stuff in cans and letting you guys figure out what to do with it would be a good way to go.

Etching Flex Circuits #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Mika @ Kobakant writes:

You can design, print and etch your own PCBs from a flexible sheet of Kapton coated with a thin layer of copper. To do this yourself you need some special materials and equipment, and if you are not planning on etching circuits more regularly then it can be nice to start by looking for a local space that has an etching setup you can use.

Photo of a flex circuit etched using the exact same process as described below in step-by-step detail.

Electronic Locket Unlocks Digital Diary #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

iHeart Locket for kids to unlock their digital diaries via Fashioning Technology

“Besties” Sweater with FLORA #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Besties sweater lights up when you are hugged:

Next we cut out a little circle of conductive fabric and split it in two and sewed them onto the left shoulder blade. We took conductive thread, sewed it into the VBATT hole, and connected it to one of the conductive fabric circle halves. We then sewed a new piece of conductive thread from the unused half circle, and connected it through all of the positive ends of the LED lights.

By interrupting the circuit using the conductive fabric half circles, when someone wearing conductive thread on their right wrist, the circuit will complete when they put their arm around the person wearing the sweater.

This project would be a great candidate for capacitive touch sensing with conductive fabric!

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Chameleon Scarf with FLORA Color Sensor #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:30:45 +0000

Ever wish your clothes could change color to match each other? Make a chameleon scarf to match every outfit using the Flora color sensor and 12 color-changing LED pixels diffused by a ruffly knit scarf. Check out the video on YouTube (please subscribe!) and Vimeo, and make your own with the full tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System.

Flora Color Sensor – TCS34725 – Your electronics can now see in dazzling color with this lovely color light sensor. We found the best color sensor on the market, the TCS34725, which has RGB and Clear light sensing elements. An IR blocking filter, integrated on-chip and localized to the color sensing photodiodes, minimizes the IR spectral component of the incoming light and allows color measurements to be made accurately. The filter means you’ll get much truer color than most sensors, since humans don’t see IR. The sensor also has an incredible 3,800,000:1 dynamic range with adjustable integration time and gain so it is suited for use behind darkened glass or fabric.

Wearable Technology Market Could Reach $50 Billion, Says Credit Suisse

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

“Wearable Technology Market Set to Explode, Could Reach $50 Billion, Says Credit Suisse” on The Business of Fashion:

LONDON, United Kingdom — On Friday, Credit Suisse issued a report on the rise of wearable devices — personal accessories with embedded sensors, displays and other digital technology, such as Nike’s FuelBand, Google’s Internet-connected eyewear and Apple’s rumoured iWatch — calling them “a mega trend” that has hit “an inflection point in market adoption” and will have “a significant and pervasive impact on the economy,” reports Barron’s.

The “wearables” market, currently concentrated in health and fitness and estimated to be worth between $3 billion to $5 billion, is set to explode, said the report, reaching $30 billion to $50 billion over the next three to five years, as sensors and battery life improve and an ecosystem of entrepreneurs start to build thousands of apps and services on top of wearable devices, just as they have done for smartphones.

Why Wearable Tech Needs Fashion #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Why wearable tech needs fashion to survive and to thrive @ Wired UK:

In the future, our clothes will replace our devices. They will light up with social media alerts, producing holograms to read those updates wherever we choose. We’ll never need to remember umbrellas or coats again either — sensors will read humidity levels and tell the conductive fibres of our customised 3D-printed clothes to release waterproof chemicals, while a shift in their nanoparticles will pull fibres together for insulation. Sensors will send our biometric data to doctors, while the antibacterial fabrics protect us from viruses.

These are most definitely designs of the future but that future is not so distant: all these technologies exist in some form today. Products like Google Glass and Apple’s rumoured iWatch represent the early stages of the wearable technology market, a market that Credit Suisse has predicted will have “a significant and pervasive impact on the economy”. The “mega trend” stands to be worth up to $50 billion over the next three to five years, fuelled by the wellness and fitness sector and advances in battery and sensor technology. However, unless these technologies converge with the fashion industry, there’s a danger they will fail to become popularised and remain unaffordable.

Spatial Hand Remote for RC Plane #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Spacial Hand Remote on Design News’ Gadget Freak:

Using an accelerometer and a handful of sensors, a team of Colorado State University students has created the Spatial Hand Remote. The gadget controls the flight of a remote control airplane through the sensors in a glove.

The movement of the plane follows the movement of the glove. As the hand in the glove tilts to the right or left, so does the plane. Sensors attached to fingers are used to control the throttle, roll reverse, and the on-off switch. The user’s hands control the plane like a maestro controling an orchestra.

Foot Power for your Wearables

bill — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:29:04 +0000

HOUSTON – (May 7, 2013) – A group of Rice University mechanical engineering students are getting a charge out of having the coolest new shoes on campus.

As their capstone project that is required for graduation, four seniors created a way to extract and store energy with every step. Their PediPower shoes turn motion into juice for portable electronics and, perhaps someday, for life-preserving medical devices.

Money No Object: Paying with Gestures #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Heidi Hinder discusses her craft + technology residency at Watershed in Bristol, UK on Humans Invent:

The project focused on creating new ways of exchanging payment via physical gestures in an attempt to make technology a more interactive experience. It also served to promote physical contact with other humans in an age when the digital is replacing the tangible.

Hinder explains, “I was interested in trying to bring people closer together through technology and how that might be possible given that people are often quite isolated and absorbed by it, so I used technology as a mediation to bring back human to human interaction.”

Using RFID tags and readers, Hinder created four different physical gestures that could act as payment including hugging. In this scenario the customer and server wear an RFID tag and reader respectively on their tops and money is exchanged when these come into contact – the easiest way for this to happen is by hugging.

Felt Ghostbusters Pack #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Felt Ghostbusters set by Etsy user JezebelRose:

It’s a Trap and a Pack!

This is a Ghostbusters Trap and Proton Pack Plushy set that is modeled from the first Ghostbusters movie. They are both soft and squishy but will also hold their forms quite well.

The backpack straps on the pack are adjustable to fit a range of sizes and a strap is present on both plushies so they can easily be hung on the wall for decoration when not in use.

Incredible Induction-Powered LED Engagement Ring #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Incredible induction-powered LED engagement ring milled from titanium by Ben Kokes aka “Project Longhaul,” beautiful story!

Developing Bike-Practical Office Attire #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000

Ministry of Supply high-tech office apparel: “Rolling Up Their Sleeves, as a Team” @ NYTimes.com:

As a 14-year-old Boy Scout who went on backpacking trips in western Massachusetts, Gihan Amarasiriwardena couldn’t find a fleece jacket that would protect him from the wind. His solution was to make his own wind-blocking coat from scratch, using plastic garbage bags, spray-on adhesive and fleece. Enlarge This Image Bryce Vickmark for The New York Times

Samples of bicycle-friendly apparel from Ministry of Supply. The company uses an aerospace design process to trace how the body’s skin moves.

Six years later, while riding his bike around the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an engineering student, he realized he needed a dress shirt that could withstand the rigors of bicycle commuting. This time, he teamed up with a classmate and set out to make that missing item in the clothing market.

But they weren’t the only ones at M.I.T. to identify such a problem. Two students at its Sloan School of Management soon got together to develop their own version of work-appropriate clothing made with practical fabrics.

One was Kit Hickey, a former investment banker who had been frustrated that her Brooks Brothers suits were so stiff compared with her rock-climbing togs. The other was Aman Advani, now 28, who in his previous life as a management consultant had begun cutting the tubes from his dress socks and stitching them to the feet of his sports socks to build better footwear for his rigorous travel schedule.

The two groups, potential competitors, met each other at M.I.T.’s entrepreneur center in 2011. But instead of seeing each other as rivals, they decided to work together. “We were like, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy.’ I can’t believe we found each other,” Ms. Hickey, 28, says of the meeting.

“It was promising to know that there might actually be a market for this,” adds Mr. Amarasiriwardena, 24. By this time, he and his classmate Kevin Rustagi had started Ministry of Supply, a clothing business based in Boston that specializes in high-tech office apparel. Soon after the meeting, Ms. Hickey and Mr. Advani joined the company.

Ceramic Baked Goods as Jewelry #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Ceramic baked goods as pendants by studio TADAM via designboom

Geek Chic with Alison Lewis #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:00:00 +0000

FrontRowFilms interview with tech stylist Alison Lewis

Fitness Tech – HardWired ft. iJustine Ep. 1 #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000

AOL’s new series HardWired with iJustine, episode 1: fitness tech

The Google Glass prototype evolution #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

@dannysullivan posted this picture from a presentation showing prototype evolution of Google Glass.

Tutorial: Adafruit Color Sensors @ The Adafruit Learning System

adafruit — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:24:53 +0000

Tutorial: Adafruit Color Sensors @ The Adafruit Learning System.

Your electronics can now see in dazzling color with this lovely color light sensor. We found the best color sensor on the market, the TCS34725, which has RGB and Clear light sensing elements. An IR blocking filter, integrated on-chip and localized to the color sensing photodiodes, minimizes the IR spectral component of the incoming light and allows color measurements to be made accurately. The filter means you’ll get much truer color than most sensors, since humans don’t see IR. The sensor also has an incredible 3,800,000:1 dynamic range with adjustable integration time and gain so it is suited for use behind darkened glass.

We add supporting circuitry as well, such as a 3.3V regulator so you can power the breakout with 3-5VDC safely and level shifting for the I2C pins so they can be used with 3.3V or 5V logic. Finally, we specified a nice neutral 4150°K temperature LED with a MOSFET driver onboard to illuminate what you’re trying to sense. The LED can be easily turned on or off by any logic level output.

For more flexibility, we’ve made two different versions of this board: A breadboard-friendly breakout, and a wearable version designed to work with the Flora wearable platform.

Stay tuned, on Wearable Wednesday we’re going to have an amazing project you can build these color sensors and FLORA!

New Wearables Section in the Adafruit Forums!

Becky Stern — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:04:13 +0000

The Adafruit forums are a great place to get help with your projects– and we just added a wearables board! Folks are building so many FLORA projects that we decided customers needed a special place to post (and ask questions about) wearables projects and techniques! Post your queries about any of the tutorials in our FLORA section on the Adafruit Learning System, and build the wearable electronics project of your dreams! Then post pictures of it. See you in the forums!

Groundbreaking Heads-Up Display from Recon Instruments

jeff — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:14:25 +0000

Introducing Recon Jet: Groundbreaking Heads-Up Display from Recon Instruments from Recon Instruments on Vimeo.

Recon Jet is an activity specific heads-up display with a truly open platform that delivers information instantly, effortlessly and unobtrusively direct to the user’s eye via a microcomputer and high-resolution widescreen display. Jet has a dual core processor, dedicated graphics, Wi-Fi, ANT+, Bluetooth, GPS, HD camera, and a comprehensive suite of sensors. All of this is mounted on a precision-engineered, fashionable pair of sunglasses on par with the best in the world.

NEW PRODUCT – Fabric Ribbon 4-Channel Wire – 1 yard

jeff — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:20:39 +0000

NEW PRODUCT – Fabric Ribbon 4-Channel Wire – 1 yard – This lightweight, flexible fabric ribbon channel contains four individual wires, perfect for wiring up wearables where flexibility is key. This ribbon has 4 x 28AWG stranded-core wires, easy to solder but also quite flexible. There’s no risk of accidental shorts since each wire is sleeved, and you can also pass a fair bit of current.

This ribbon is ideal for when you’d like to make soldered connections, a rugged sewable data bus or pass higher current than is possible with stainless thread. This ribbon can handle 250mA continuous load & spikes of 1A.

Features:

Ultra-low resistance: ~0.25 Ω / m
4 Conductor connections
Power and data applications
Sewable – we suggest straight-stitching on the edges
Washable and dryable
Foldable onto itself without shorting
100% Nylon: Black color with two red & white pinstripes
Sold in 1 yard lengths

Technical Details

Dimensions: 927.1mm / 36.5″ x 12.5mm / 0.5″
Weight: 11.11g

In stock and shipping now!

Fred Armisen Tries on Google Glass #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Fred Armisen tries Google Glass on Engadget:

There’s a good chance that you, like us, enjoyed a certain Saturday Night Live sketch recently in which Weekend Update’s newly branded tech correspondent Randall Meeks gave his raw impressions of Google Glass — using a prop made of plastic and attached to a pair of sunglasses. There was a lot of shouting, twitching and, for us at least, laughing. Meeks is played by the incredibly talented Fred Armisen, also well-known for IFC’s surreally hilarious Portlandia. In reality, we learned, Armisen had never used Google Glass. That was a situation we were happy to fix.

Glowing Chuck Taylor All-Star Sneakers #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:15:00 +0000

Make your logo light up with this simple Converse sneaker mod. All you need is EL panel and an inverter tucked into the tongue of your shoe to get the stars in your Chuck Taylors glowing. Two styles! Watch the video on YouTube (please subscribe!) or Vimeo, and catch the complete tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System.

Lioness Costume with FLORA #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Kris Kortright writes:

Deirdre’s new Lioness/Cat costume using Adafruit FLORA electronics to light it up! We’re still in testing, the whiskers and eyes will be aligned and have additional electronics to make the eyes and ears move, and the whiskers twitch. Only so many hours after work to put into it, hoping we’re 100% done for the next Show & Tell!

3D iPhone Mashup Shoe #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

FreshFiber iPhone mashup shoe by Alan Nguyen– lets you tote yours and a friends at the club, no purse required.

Illuminated Muffs Rob London Fog of its Terrors #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Illuminated Muffs – They Rob London Fog of Its Terrors (1917) via @VictorianLondon & @plantseeds

Epson Moverio & APX Labs Smart Glasses #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Epson Moverio & APX Labs: Smart Glasses Demo:

See a behind the glasses view of APX Labs’ Northstar technology, which enables hands free interaction with digital content. They are using a custom modified version of the Moverio BT-100 to power the demo.

Stargate T-Shirt #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Stitch Gate Shirt! Sadly no longer available for purchase.

Adafruit Ohm Sweet Ohm Cross-Stitch Kit – A cross-stitch kit that’s also a resistor chart! Not only is this kit fun to make (and good for beginner stitchers), when it’s all done it functions as a handy resistor reference chart. This Adafruit original kit comes complete with everything you need to get started.

Disney Villain Heels #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000

Handmade heels by Kobi Levi designed after Disney villains via Geekologie

Snalien Bursting Pendant #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Snalien bursting out of your chest pendant by CthuluWakeUp on Etsy via Girl Gone Geek

The Examined Life of Rachel Kalmar: Data Scientist #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 06:00:00 +0000

Nice profile of Misfit Wearables‘ data scientist, Rachel Kalmar, on MAKE:

That elegant aluminum disc on her right wrist: that’s Shine, the “personal activity tracker” created by Misfit Wearables. Kalmar is the company’s data scientist.

Shine enters the crowded health monitoring field with a design centered around a simple question: Are you moving enough? It measures your activity and syncs with an iPhone app (with Android coming soon).

The 40-person company is based in Daly City, California, but has significant operations in Vietnam.

Shine, coming in June from Misfit Wearables.

Earlier this year, Shine completed a spectacularly successful crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo, raising $846k, more than eight times its original $100k goal. This was in addition to $7.6 million in VC funding the company raised in April, 2012. Now Misfit Wearables has 10,000 pre-orders to fill for a promised June delivery date. Retail price will be $99.

Like the rest of the company, Kalmar is focused on fulfillment. But she is also wondering what will happen after 10,000+ Shines are collecting and transmitting data from people’s wrists, necklaces, and pockets.

“My question is: What should we be doing with all this data?” she asks. “And how do we make it useful?”

Eyebeam 3D Printing for Fashion Workshop May 21 #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000

Workshop: 3D Printing for Fashion – How to apply digital fabrication techniques to your design work:

EYEBEAM 540 West 21st Street NYC

TUESDAY, MAY 21 6 – 9PM $25 | PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE

Learn the basics and possibilities of digital fabrication from NYC design experts! As part of Eyebeam’s Computational Fashion program, this workshop will demonstrate some of today’s most disruptive, innovative, and thought provoking technologies. Join Arthur Young-Spivey, Sabine Seymour, and Francis Bitonti to explore 3D software, scanning, and printing tools, and consider how they can be used, combined, and pushed in new directions.

Workshop participants will gain exposure to digital fabrication and its potential use within fashion, developing new ways to think about it as both a prototyping process and a creative medium. Presentations – including designer Francis Bitonti discussing his work on a fully articulated 3D printed gown – will be followed by hands-on demonstrations, where participants will be able to try out various aspects of the digital fabrication process using a selection of 3D printers, scanners, and software.

Tickets available now More information here.

Ziploc Jacket #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Jacket from sewn Ziploc bags by Diane via Geekologie

Conductive Fabric #Manufacturing Monday

Becky Stern — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:00:42 +0000

Featured Adafruit Products

Woven Conductive Fabric – Silver 20cm square - This woven conductive fabric is silver-plated nylon. Use small pieces for soft switches, plush keypads, capacitive touch sensors, and other textile interfaces. This highly conductive fabric has a resistance of less than 1 ohm per foot in any direction across the textile. Great for use with FLORA.

NEW PRODUCT – Knit Jersey Conductive Fabric – 20cm square

adafruit — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:34:24 +0000

NEW PRODUCT – Knit Jersey Conductive Fabric – 20cm square. This knit jersey conductive fabric is 63% cotton, 35% silver yarn and 2% spandex. Use small pieces for soft switches, plush keypads, capacitive touch sensors, and other textile interfaces. It’s very soft and matte, perfect for ironing onto wearables with double sided interfacing. This conductive fabric has different resistance in each direction: 46 ohms per foot across the rows (stretchier direction) and 460 ohms per foot across the columns (less stretchy direction). This is because a knit is comprised of a single strand of fiber that travels back and forth across the fabric. Great for use with FLORA. Sold as a 20cm x 20cm piece (minimum dimension). Iron on medium if necessary, steam ok. Dry cleaning recommended. Discoloration can occur over time.

In stock and shipping now!

The New World of Wearable Computing

adafruit — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:59:39 +0000

Tech Fashion Statement: The New World of Wearable Computing | Nanotechnology | LiveScience.

Imagine if your shirt could track your heart rate as you run, or if it could charge your cellphone on the go. Innovative fashion designers and engineers, who are pushing the envelope with “smart textiles,” dream of designing garments that are not just embedded with devices, but actually are the devices. Welcome to the world of wearable computing.

The development of smart textiles is a true fusion of fashion and technology. From manipulating nanoparticles in cotton, to incorporating knit antennas and transistors into garments, the computational fashion industry is reimagining how we use clothing in our everyday lives.

You don’t need to imagine it folks

http://adafruit.com/flora
http://www.adafruit.com/materials

Light Helmet with Raspberry Pi & Rainbowduino #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Ryan Longo and Michael Vogt created this crazy-looking light-up helmet!

EL Wire Star #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:20:49 +0000

EL wire pinwheel by Scott Janousek:

The EL Pinwheel was a CUBICAL90 digital art project at Artisan’s Asylum by Scott Janousek. The project was inspired by Ecco Pierce who does metal sculpture and EL. The EL Pinwheel was created in the span of a few hours, in intervals, over the span of a week.

EL wire starter pack – Aqua 2.5 meter (8.2 ft)

Gifts for your Mom from Adafruit

Risa Rose — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:57:13 +0000

Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 12th. Make your mom an awesome & original LED lit card with the Bare Conductive Card Kit.

For the mom on the go, we suggest the Minty Boost so she always stays charged.

Get you mom into wearable electronics with the Flora GPS starter pack, she will never loose track of you again.

Use the Adafruit Beginner LED Sewing Kit to light up some homemade origami or embroidery.

Wrap your mothers vase or bouquet with Litex White LEDs on white fabric ribbon to brighten her day.

If your mom is a fan of the legendary Transistor Man diagram from Horowitz & Hill’s “The Art of Electronics,” get her the Transistor Man Shirt

If your Mom hasn’t touched a soldering iron, we have some things we think she’ll love, like the the iNecklace.

Order ASAP for your gift to arrive on time!

Minecraft Binder Cover #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Mincraft binder cover handmade by “rad mom Angela” via CRAFT

Finger Bend Sensor #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:47:39 +0000

Learn to make a finger bend sensor with LEDs on Kobakant:

This project uses the open design for gLove Mono by Zoe Romano and integrates a felt & velostat bend sensor on the middle finger. A lilypad arduino is programmed to read the analog sensor value of the fabric bend sensor, and trigger 1, 2 or 3 LED lights to light up depending on how much the finger is bent. This example project was made for the codemotion workshop titled Arduino meets Wearables.

Light-Up Angler Fish Embroidery #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:37:05 +0000

This is a very simple FLORA project with no soldering– a single NeoPixel lights up on an embroidered angler fish on a pair of shorts. The main board is stitched on the front of the design, in the belly of the fish. A snap is used on the fin as a digital switch, triggering a color change in the pixel in the angler’s lure. Follow the circuit diagram to stitch up this circuit, and tuck the battery in the pocket.

Watch the video on YouTube (please subscribe!) or Vimeo, and catch the complete angler fish embroidery guide on the Adafruit Learning System.

Sensors on Google Glass #wearables

adafruit — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:10:30 +0000

Sensors on Google Glass @ The Code Artist.

Recently Google has shared the Linux Kernel source for the firmware running on the Google Glass. Having grown tired of watching online reviews about the monotonous “Glass this, glass that” voice commands, i was curious about the support for other forms of input. (read gestures). A quick peek into the innards of the kernel source revealed quite a lot…

How To Do the Backstitch #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Sublime Stitching’s got a handy backstitch diagram– it’s one of my favorite stitches for both conductive thread and regular embroidery. via CRAFT

Fitbit Flex #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000

Fitbit Flex via Cool Hunting:

Personal activity monitors are among the most common wearable computers, though their sophistication has advanced significantly since the days of the pager-like pedometer. The best of these devices have migrated from the hip to the wrist and offer highly detailed insight aimed to help people live healthier lives. Whether it’s through gamification with the Nike FuelBand or the rich visuals of the Jawbone UP, the bracelet form-factor has proven useful, usable and desirable among those who care to quantify their daily activities. Today, Fitbit—an already well-established member in the wearable market, introduces Flex to compete directly with the FuelBand and the UP for a space on your wrist.

iJustine Interviewed about Wearable Tech on HuffPost Live #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Web Star iJustine On Wearable Tech on Huffington Post Live:

YouTube star Justine Ezarik, better known as ‘iJustine,’ talks about her new Aol series ‘Hardwired’ which follows her across country in search of the latest innovations in wearable technology.

Fashion Brands Absent From Wearable Tech Revolution #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:00:00 +0000

Fashion Brands Absent From Wearable Tech Revolution on The Business of Fashion:

As the technology industry sets its sights on wearable computing, it’s time for fashion and luxury brands to take the space seriously, or risk losing highly lucrative real estate on the emerging battleground of the human body.

LONDON, United Kingdom — In recent weeks, there’s been a flurry of activity in the emerging market for wearable devices — personal accessories with embedded sensors, displays and other digital technology — a space many analysts believe is set to be the next major technology battleground and a $10 billion industry by 2016.

First, three of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital funds, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz, announced an investment partnership targeting apps for Google Glass, the company’s Internet-enabled eyewear. Then, The Wall Street Journal reported that, according to Asian suppliers, Microsoft is working on a touch-enabled smartwatch to compete with Apple’s rumoured iWatch.

A day later, Google released guidelines for software developers building services, or “Glassware,” for Google Glass. And just yesterday, Jawbone, a company backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Khosla Ventures, among others, announced its acquisition of BodyMedia, a maker of wearable health tracking devices, for a sum that is reportedly over $100 million.

“We’re very bullish on the idea of ubiquitous computing, which has been an idea our industry has had since the late 1980s. The essential idea is that computers will be everywhere — they’ll be in your glasses, they’ll be part of your clothing,” Margit Wennmachers, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, told BoF. “We already see people bringing their smartphones with them everywhere and reaching for them first thing in the morning so we know people want a computer with them at all times — to help them figure what they need to do or where to go or how to get there or to learn more about the person they’re about to meet with. Google Glass is just a less obtrusive, always there, always on extension of that same idea.”

eTextile Summer Camp 2013 Open Call #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000

The eTextiles Summer Camp 2013 Call for eTextiles Practitioners!

The eTextiles Summer Camp (eTextile-summercamp.org) is a five day event that brings together expert practitioners of eTextiles and Soft Circuitry in one place to share their knowledge and skills through hands-on workshops, and facilitate discussions around their practices. We are looking for makers, designers, engineers and artists, who work in the field of eTextiles and soft circuitry to participate.

The first Summer Camp was held in 2011 in Borås Sweden, with 20 experts (http://stdl.se/summercamp/). This year, we are planning the second edition of the eTextiles Summer Camp from 17th to 21st of July in Poncé sur le Loir, France, hosted by Paillard Centre d’Art Contemporain & Résidence d’Artistes (http://moulinsdepaillard.com/).

The E-textile Summer Camp’s 2013 theme will be “Soft + Slow Electronics”. Many of us as engineers, designers and artists are working with soft materials such as textiles and paper, exploring the potential of soft, malleable and flexible electronics. Our practices often involve techniques that require intensive hand work, often resulting in long production processes. Some of the techniques we employ are almost archaic, but because we see value in making our own materials in our own ways, old-fashioned and slow techniques often come into play. We propose to see these practices as “slow”, rather than “time consuming”.

In today’s society “slowness” has gained positive connotation and acknowledgement through movements like Slow Food, Slow Cities and Slow Design Principles. These movements not only embrace the amounts of physical time consumed in a process, but also the social and cultural impacts resulting from slow processes.

Voodoo Sensor Doll #WearableWednesday

Becky Stern — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Voodoo sensor doll on Kobakant: “poke sensor, pin prick sensor, prick sensor, sting sensor… Two layers of conductive fabric with isolating spacer in between.”

Knit Conductive Fabric – Silver 20cm square – This knit conductive fabric is 100% silver and super luxe! Use small pieces on the tips of gloves or in any soft circuit situation where you need a bit of stretch. This highly conductive fabric has a resistance of less than 1 ohm per foot in any direction across the textile. It can be used to make soft keypads and capacitive touch sensors, as well as soft “squeeze” switches. Great for use with FLORA.

Dragon shoes

adafruit — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:46:12 +0000

One demon sneaker working, one to go. #adafruit6secs vine.co/v/b2Mz2l7dxEv

— Phil Burgess (@PaintYourDragon) May 6, 2013

More soon