Craftzine.com blog: Soft Circuits Archives

Archive: Soft Circuits

February 7, 2012

Four Years of Making

Dear beloved CRAFT readers,

Today is my last day as Senior Video Producer for MAKE & CRAFT. The past four years have been, undoubtedly, the best times of my life so far. I'm immensely thankful to have been a part of such a dedicated and talented team -- they're like family to me. While you won't be seeing me on the blog, Make: Live, or CRAFT videos any longer, this isn't so much "goodbye" as "see you around." I'll always be a proud member of the maker community.

After a little time off, I'll be taking a position at Adafruit Industries, heading up the wearable electronics group, and of course, you know I can't resist making videos. I'm delighted to dig into more ambitious projects than ever before, so I hope you'll check them out.

I thought I'd share some of my "greatest hits" videos from over the years, so I've compiled a list over on MAKE.

You can check out my entire body of video work for MAKE/CRAFT in the Becky's Workshop YouTube playlist, and if you want to keep up with my projects, follow me on Twitter. See you around the tubes!

January 6, 2012

Beating Heart Headband

In this episode of Becky's Workshop, learn to make a headband that glows with your heart beat. First construct a stretchy headband from brocade and grosgrain ribbon, then embed the circuit boards and clip the sensor to your ear. You can find the Beating Heart Headband in MAKE v29, and see the complete how-to on Make: Projects.

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube or Vimeo. Thanks to Britex Fabrics for the ribbon.

More:

September 13, 2011

Mapbag: Josh Billions (video)

Josh Billions demonstrates the Mapbag at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. It is a bicycle messenger bag with a ring of vibrating motors sewn into its strap, whose positions correspond to compass points. This soft circuit project uses a LilyPad Arduino in conjunction with the GPS feature in an iPhone, allowing the user to set a destination and be given constant haptic feedback through the fabric in order to stay on course. Mapbag acts as an exploratory wayfinding tool - a fun and useful alternative to a standard turn-by-turn map.

Subscribe to the Maker Faire Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube and Vimeo.

Check out more videos from Maker Faire.

More:

August 22, 2011

Polymath Design Lab: Shannon Henry (video)

Shannon Henry demonstrates her E-textile fiber optic skirts at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. LEDs, fiber optics, and accelerometers are just a few of the elements that she uses to embellish her fashions. She even hacked a snoring greeting card to put inside a felted sculpture of her grandfather.

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube and Vimeo.

Check out more videos from Maker Faire Bay Area 2011.

Read full story »

August 5, 2011

LED Shoe Clips Make Your Toes Twinkle

Twinkle toes! Make LED ruffles to customize your shoes in this CRAFT video. This easy soft circuit project can get you started in wearable electronics and even may help you find your way in a dark parking lot. They're perfect for bridesmaids, too.

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube or Vimeo.

For this project you need:

2 LED Sewing Kits (available from Maker Shed)
silky fabric for the ruffle
matching felt
sewing needle and regular thread
2 paper clips
scissors
pencil
pliers

Check out the complete step-by-step tutorial over on Make: Projects.

More:

June 3, 2011

TV-B-Gone Jacket

Whenever I bring my TV-B-Gone out to restaurants, I look suspicious pointing it around. So I embedded the device into a jacket and turned it into a wearable TV silencer. For the switch, I sewed paths of conductive thread that become bridged by the metal zipper pull when it passes by. At the restaurant or bar, all I have to do is unzip my jacket to turn off the TV(s).

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube. Music by i am jen.

For this project you need:

Super TV-B-Gone Kit (available from Maker Shed)
conductive thread
jacket with metal zipper pull
sewing needle and regular thread
seam ripper (or very small scissors)
tailor's chalk
soldering iron/solder
pliers
wire strippers
wire snips
insulated wire (stranded)
heat shrink tubing

Check out the complete a complete step-by-step tutorial for the previous version of this project, the TV-B-Gone Hoodie, over on Make: Projects.

More:

Read full story »

Soft Circuit Musical Hats

Syuzi @ Fashioning Technology writes:

E-textiles are a phenomenal medium to explore novel musical interfaces. From the commercially available Air Guitar T to a pair of DIY drum kit jeans, to date there are numerous examples of creative instruments that explore unorthodox interfaces.

What sets the Midi Hat apart from the rest (other than the downright cuteness factor) is that the Midi Hat is a collaborative musical interface that allows participants to compose music together. It is the nature of this collaboration, along with the whimsical interface design, that makes this musical instrument quite a delight to play.

The musical performance hats shown were designed by Sunny Oh and Anna Obikane. The felt puffs are sensors built with steel wool.

May 5, 2011

eTextile Showcase at Maker Faire Bay Area

Don't miss the eTextile Showcase at Maker Faire Bay Area. Syuzi's TRON Quorra costume, the clap-off bra, and much more:

On Saturday 21 May 2011 fashion designers and engineers, makers and professional will fuse tech and fashion, function and form, reality and possibility to present a Maker Fair original: An eTextile and wearable computing showcase featuring designers from Chicago to the Bay Area.

eTextile Showcase

Saturday May 21 2011 3pm

ArcAttack Stage, Fiesta Hall

May 4, 2011

Surface Switches from Conductive Paper

Here's an intriguing sampler of switches made with conductive papers and inks by students at IAMAS in Japan: Atsuhito Sekiguchi, James Gibson, Akira Segawa, Keiko Kobayashi Julien Jassauo Ami Kanoh, Akemi Nanya, Takashi Kondo, Takashi Honda and Ryusei Sakamoto. [via Fashioning Technology]

More:

Computational Pop-Up Book by Jie Qie

April 6, 2011

Knit Conductive Thread into Your Gloves

Still chilly? Never fear, you can knit conductive thread into your gloves and keep your smartphone fingers warm. Laura Nelkin lives near chilly Ithaca, NY, where these are still coming in quite handy:

Did you know I live somewhere COLD? Well, now that I have a smart phone with a touch screen I've run into a problem... I want to answer it, check my e-mail or just tweet and I have to TAKE OFF my gloves to do it. This just doesn't work when it's 10 degrees out! Last year my hubby was talking my ear off about conductive thread and how cool it is and how it's the wave of apparel design' s future, and I was like yeah.. yeah.. yeah... right. BUT, it is!!!!

I decided to get some from Etsy and give it a whirl, and you know what? It IS the latest greatest thing... I knit some gloves and held the conductive thread double with the yarn for the tip of the index finger, and IT WORKS! I can use my phone outside and not freeze... who woulda thunk it? I did decide to give my finger a little extra "boost" and wove the ends of the thread across the pad of the finger a few times more.

More:

How-To: Touch Screen Gloves (another way)

March 29, 2011

LED Matrix Quilt

Wow! Katie Dektar made this LED matrix quilt, and she posted up plenty of process pictures showing how it all works.

I sewed the rows of the matrix by machine (by putting the conductive thread in the bobbin). They all come together in the corner where they will attach to the Lilypad Arduino.

I then sewed on 64 LEDs by hand, which took quite me quite a few movies to get through. Using the embroidery hoop makes this 10x easier.

Here is a long exposure of the quilt. You can see the LED lights glow through the batting, and the fun wrinkles in the quilt. The best part is that it is deformable and soft!

[via Fashioning Technology]

March 21, 2011

Conductive Lace for Sensors

Anja Hertenberger and Meg Grant are working with a lace factory in Limburg, The Netherlands to run conductive thread through the machines to be integrated into these intriguing pressure sensor prototypes. The two have started a blog to document their explorations: Lace Sensor Project. [via Fashioning Tech]

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