Soft CircuitsArchive: Soft Circuits

November 20, 2009

"See-thru-me" Light Shirt

See-thru-me is a project by Meg Grant that uses LEDs and light sensitive resistors to give the effect of light being passed through the body. When a light is shined on the wearer's back, the LEDs on the front light up in the corresponding place. It seems to me based on the pictures that there aren't any microcontrollers being used in this project, just each photoresistor controlling one LED. [via Fashioning Technology]

Posted by Becky Stern | Nov 20, 2009 09:00 AM
Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

November 19, 2009

Pictures from Hack PGH's Soft Circuit Workshop

Check out Matt Mets' pictures from the Hack Pittsburgh soft circuits workshop. I love the variety among the participants, from little girls to hacker dudes.

Posted by Becky Stern | Nov 19, 2009 09:00 AM
Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

November 17, 2009

Fairytale Fashion: Conductive Materials and Drawdio

Diana Eng's new Fairytale Fashion video is about playing with the Drawdio and conductive embroidery to create fun, interactive noises.

Posted by Becky Stern | Nov 17, 2009 09:14 AM
Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

November 13, 2009

Accupressure Soft Circuit Garment

E-pressed is a jacket that uses a galvanic skin response sensor to measure your need for acupressure. The spots where a friend might help relieve your "negative emotions" are highlighted with LEDs and a graphic, and they contain soft buttons to sense massage. I agree with Syuzi @ Fashioning Technology when she says this project is "an interesting exploration on how wearable technology can become used either as training tools for alternative medical therapy or home therapy," but I'm not sure I buy into the emotional "inner state" benefit just yet. Hannah Perner-Wilson's Massage Me jacket, which turns massaging your friend into a video game (fun for everyone)!

Posted by Becky Stern | Nov 13, 2009 09:20 AM
Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

November 5, 2009

How-To: Sewable iPod Remote

Here's a quick and easy soft circuit project from Instructables user craft-tech:

There are a lot of really cool iPod remote control projects: some have simple buttons, some react to heartbeat or body motion, and others are designed to interface directly with software running on a computer. However, not one of them is truly wearable, or speaks to the unique needs of e-textiles designers. They have been mostly prototypes, and are seldom intended for serious, daily use. With this in mind, we took our time to design a system that is tiny, robust, and very easy to incorporate into your project. The end result has three components:

1. a tiny, complete circuit that sits *inside* the dock connector

2. four pieces of conductive fabric that form the two buttons of the remote

3. two-channel conductive yarn to connect the sections (we spin it ourselves)

More:

New Soft Circuit Kits in the Maker Shed and Massive Soft Electronics Roundup

Posted by Becky Stern | Nov 5, 2009 04:00 PM
Soft Circuits, Tech Accessories | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

October 12, 2009

Fairytale Fashion with Diana Eng

CRAFT and MAKE friend Diana Eng a new wearable tech project going on; it looks awesome! The project description:

From October to December 2009, I will be making magical clothes for Fairytale Fashion. These might be clothes that have blooming flowers, living clothes that breathe, change color, transform. And guess what, YOU will be leading the design! Each Monday, FairytaleFashion.org will have a new video that introduces a technology like inflatables, deployable structures, muscle wire and microcontrollers. At the end of each video is a design question. Answer the weekly design questions on our website. I will use your answers to create the Fairytale Fashion. Finally, the finished garments will be presented in a fashion show in early 2010. Fairytale Fashion is produced with the support of Eyebeam.

Posted by Becky Stern | Oct 12, 2009 04:00 PM
Fashion, Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

October 7, 2009

Soft Circuit Zipper Communicators

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Jai Yi Lin made these networked zipper communicators for two far-away people to share how much they miss each other with a zip zip and an LED meter. [via Fashioning Technology]

In the Maker Shed:

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MKSF1-2.jpg

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

Posted by Becky Stern | Oct 7, 2009 07:00 AM
Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

October 5, 2009

Computational Pop-Up Book

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Jie Qi made this whimsical, magical interactive electronic pop-up book using the paper arduino prototypes coming out of Leah Buechley's new research group at the MIT Media Lab. Syuzi at Fashioning Technology did a nice report on some of the different pages and what they do. She used conductive paint, thread, and fabric to make innovative switches. I truly think that children's books will have functionality like in the not-too-distant future.

Posted by Becky Stern | Oct 5, 2009 04:00 PM
Paper Crafts, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

September 9, 2009

Fashion Camp this weekend

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Here's an interesting event happening this weekend in NYC:

On September 12 and 13, 2009, during New York Fashion Week, the mainstream fashion community, the independent fashion community, and fashion's next wave of wearable technologists will convene at FashionCampNY to address the future of fashion in the 21st Century.

To be held at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program Center (721 Broadway), FashionCampNY is the first large event to bring together disparate parts of the fashion community to discuss and explore the intersection of fashion and technology. For two days, roughly 300 fashion professionals, designers, innovators and fashion-lovers will teach and converse about the future of fashion, exploring emerging questions through workshops, presentations, and collaboration. It is an “unconference” attended and run by the participants.

I'll be helping run a soft circuits workshop, so come on out!

Posted by Becky Stern | Sep 9, 2009 02:00 PM
Events, Fashion, Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

September 3, 2009

Radio Rug Uses Human Antenna

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Designer Florian Kräutli is working on this rug with embedded conductive threads that, when walked upon, use the stepper's body as an antenna for a connected radio. Via Fashioning Technology.

Posted by Becky Stern | Sep 3, 2009 09:00 AM
Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

August 4, 2009

Soft Stroke Sensor

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Hannah Perner-Wilson made this soft stroke sensor from some conductive thread and fabric. When the sensor is stroked, the fibers touch each other in a different way than when still, transmitting the signal to a computer or microcontroller.

Posted by Becky Stern | Aug 4, 2009 02:00 PM
Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

July 28, 2009

New Wearable Electronics Resource Site

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One of my favorite soft circuit mavens, Hannah Perner-Wilson, has teamed up with Mika Satomi to bring you a new site called How to Get What You Want, a container site for all the totally rad projects they've been cranking out recently. Bookmark their site for your reference, I know I just did. I love that the graphic is made up of a bunch of soft circuit techniques. Via Fashioning Technology.

More soft circuits and fashion tech on CRAFT:

Posted by Becky Stern | Jul 28, 2009 03:59 PM
Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

July 27, 2009

Open Softwear Free E-Book

Gareth @ MAKE points us to an awesome new resource for soft circuits and other electronic wearables called Open Softwear, produced by folks associated with K3, the Malmö University School of Arts and Communication in Sweden. I'm digging the simple illustrations and easy-to-follow examples. Downlowd the free PDF to get started.

More:


In the Maker Shed:

Makershedsmall

MKSF1-2.jpg

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

Posted by Becky Stern | Jul 27, 2009 09:00 AM
Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

June 30, 2009

How-To: Nightlife Necklace

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Over on Etsy's Storque, Diana Eng has a tutorial from her book, Fashion Geek, on making this LED "nightlife" necklace.

Posted by Becky Stern | Jun 30, 2009 04:00 PM
Fashion Tech, Jewelry, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

June 10, 2009

Soft Sensor Spread

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Hannah Perner-Wilson is having an open studio, as evidenced by her Flickr stream, and check out the mouth-watering spread of soft sensors for wearable and soft electronics she's got there! Her production volume is totally relentless.

Posted by Becky Stern | Jun 10, 2009 04:00 PM
Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

June 3, 2009

LED dress for Bachelorette

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Karen Curley and Lindsay Broomfield made this LED dress for the band Bachelorette using a LilyPad Arduino and some LilyPad sewable LEDs. Check out the Flickr set. Via Fashioning Technology.

More:


Posted by Becky Stern | Jun 3, 2009 09:00 AM
Arts & Design, Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

May 21, 2009

Soft Circuit Merit Badge Merits Itself

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Here's the latest project from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories:

The proliferation of spoof, nerd, science, and electronics merit badges has demonstrated that geeks like to show off their skills and accomplishments. One skill is particularly appropriate for the format: soft circuitry. By building your own soft circuit onto an actual badge you can demonstrate your mastery.

EMSL will be at Maker Faire, don't miss them!

More:

Electronic Embroidery/Sewing Kit

Posted by Becky Stern | May 21, 2009 09:00 AM
Sewing, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

May 19, 2009

Glowing Button Cycling Jacket

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One of the most common DIY LilyPad Arduino uses seems to be in bike wear. I don't know if it's because bike riders like electronics or what, but here's another one! Instructables user kempton made this very attractive cycling jacket with LED buttons, and wrote up a detailed step-by-step tutorial for making your own, complete with turn signals.

More:

Posted by Becky Stern | May 19, 2009 04:00 PM
Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

May 12, 2009

Lasercut Stretchy Conductive Fabric Traces


lasercutconductivetraces.jpg

One of the down sides to most conductive fabric is that it's not stretchy. Instructables user nadya managed to make conductive fabric stretchy by lasercutting zigzag patterns in it to affix it to cotton jersey.

Posted by Becky Stern | May 12, 2009 02:00 PM
Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

May 9, 2009

How-To: LED Robot Embroidery

In this Threadbanger episode, learn to sew a simple circuit to create an embroidered robot with glowing LED eyes. Diana Eng shows you this project from her book, Fashion Geek.

More:

Posted by Becky Stern | May 9, 2009 12:00 PM
Fashion, Fashion Tech, Soft Circuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

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