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]

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.

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

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)!

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

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.

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:

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

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.

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!

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.

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.

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:

• Soft Circuits Archives
  
• Fashion Tech Archives
  

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:

• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101
  
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino Bike Patch
  
• TV-B-Gone Hoodie and Zipper Switch
  
• Electronic Embroidery/Sewing Kit

In the Maker Shed:

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

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

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.

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:

• New soft circuit kits in the maker shed and massive soft electronics roundup
  
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101
  
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino Blinking Bike Patch
  

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

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:

• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino Blinking Bike Patch
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101
  
• HOW TO - Make a Turn Signal Bike Jacket

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.

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:

• Fashion Hacking with Diana Eng on May 10th in Brooklyn, NY
  
• Checkin' In: Fashion Nerd Diana Eng
  
• Electronic Embroidery - CRAFT Video Podcast
  
• Electronic Embroidery
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
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Sew up this little colorful brooch using a LilyPad tri-color LED and three small potentiometers for a customizable color wardrobe embellishment. No programming required!

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v video.

Potentiometers are variable resistors. They change the amount of electricity that can pass through them based on the turning of the knob, thereby dimming and brightening the three channels of the tri-color LED. The colors mix and diffuse through the roving, producing any color in the rainbow. Here's the front,

and the back,

and here's the diagram for sewing the components together.

Materials and tools:

• conductive thread (E-sewing Kit)
• coincell battery (E-sewing Kit)
• sewable battery holder (E-sewing Kit)
• LilyPad tri-color LED (Sparkfun)
• 3 small 1K-ohm potentiometers (Digikey)
• small on-off pushbutton switch (Digikey)
• brooch template (cardboard or illustration board)
• fabric
• needle and thread
• pin back
• wool roving
• felting needle
• felting surface (upholstery foam scrap works great)
• scissors
• pliers
• alligator clips for prototyping

More:

• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101
  
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino Blinking Bike Patch
  
• Electronic Embroidery - CRAFT Video Podcast

In the Maker Shed:

LilyPad E-Sewing Kit

Ellie Roundtree, a Rocketboom technology correspondent, takes us on a tour of the spring show at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, highlighting wearable technology projects. I'm digging Adam Harvey's Paparazzi defense flash and Anaid Gomez's heartrate-sensing iPod controller. Via Core77.

More:

• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino Blinking Bike Patch
  

Via the CRAFT Flickr pool, Marisa Ranalli made this totally amazing handmade electronic and fiber dress powered by LilyPad Arduinos and included LEDs and nitinol wire (an alloy that changes shape when electricity is applied). It's her final project in the Textiles program at Sheridan College in Toronto, and it's totally rad! I'd love to see a video about it. It will be shown at the Lennox Contemporary Gallery from April 30th-May 10th.

More:

• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino Bike Patch
  

Hanna Perner-Wilson just released a kit version of her fabric bend sensor- everything you need to make one yourself!

This is a kit, meaning that it comes unassembled and requires you to have tools and some regular sewing thread as well as about half an hour time for completion.

This kit contains:

* Two 2 x 12 cm pieces of 1.5 mm thick HS quality neoprene with polyester jersey fused to each side (gray, purple)

* Two 1.5 x 9.5 cm pieces of Velostat

* Two 1 x 2 cm pieces of stretch conductive fabric with fusible interfacing adhered to one side

* 60 cm of conductive thread

* 1:1 Instruction stencil printout on A4 paper

To compete this kit you will need:

* Regular clothing iron

* About 60 cm of regular sewing thread

* Sewing needle

* Scissors for cutting thread

* Knife for cutting out stencil

* Pen for marking stencil

You can use her Instructable as a guide to construction.

In this intermediate soft circuit tutorial, I show you how to make a light-up patch that can be used on your backpack for fun and bike safety. If you missed my LilyPad Arduino 101, you may want to watch that first. The theme of this year's Maker Faire is "Re-Make America" so I thought I'd add some red, white, and blue LEDs to my messenger bag. I added them to a removable patch (from the fatlab, an artist collective I'm part of) so I can easily remove it at the airport, in the rain, etc. I used a rechargeable lithium polymer batter to power the whole thing because it's flatter, lasts longer, and can be recharged instead of thrown away. I also made an Instructable where you can find links to all the supplies I used. You can download the source code and schematic for this project to get started on your own!

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v video.

In the Maker Shed:

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

LilyPad Pro Kit

More:

CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101

Want to get your hands working with the LilyPad Arduino system? There's a workshop being held in Berkeley this summer on the topic. It will be two full days of getting started with the LilyPad and conductive materials for use in your own projects, taught by Adrian Freed. Via Fashioning Technology.

By cutting, sewing, sticking, weaving, and layering unusual e-textiles we will build interactive clothing and musical instruments in a collaborative workshop environment. We will connect our fabric pressure, stretch, bend, and displacement sensors to lilypad e-sewing computing platform, we will sew connections to arrays of leds and sound makers. We will explore CNMAT's extensive library of e-textiles and more advanced techniques such as computer controlled embroidery and laser cutting. We will look at variants and alternatives to the lilypad such as wireless xbee or uOSC.

E-textile Workshop

July 25-26, 10 AM-5 PM

CNMAT, Berkeley, CA

Fee: $300 (includes materials fee with lilypad system you keep after the class)

More:

CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101

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

Electronic Embroidery/Sewing Kit

Instructables user kanjun writes:

This tutorial will show you how to create a garment that changes its behavior depending on how conductive you are. It detects conductivity through iron-on conductive fabric that we will use, and it will light up and sing different notes depending on how you touch the conductive fabric. We'll be using sewable electronics (the LilyPad arduino module) and conductive threads and fabrics so that your garment will be soft and washable.

More:

CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101

Get started with the LilyPad Arduino! It's a sewable microcontroller that lets you embed lights, sounds, sensors, and much more into your wearables, perfect for clothing and accessories. In this video I'll show you how to attach the LilyPad and power supply to each other, and upload a basic program that blinks an LED. You can use Arduino with Windows, OS X, and Linux. Next time I'll show some more advanced topics including hooking up a sensor and using it to change the circuit's behavior.

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v (iPhone) or mov movie.

Download the code you'll need for Arduino to execute this example. It's also here:

In the Maker Shed:

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

LilyPad Pro Kit

More:

Electronic Embroidery - CRAFT Video Podcast

On March 19th, I had my book release party for Fashion Geek: Clothes, Accessories, Tech at Pop Lounge. It included a fashion presentation of all of the DIY electronic fashions in the book. Here's a look behinds the scenes of making the DIY projects into a fashion presentation.

Jen Parker and Elizabeth Owusu were the hair stylists armed with headbands to give the models' hair Gossip Girl style. About an hour before the show an EL wire driver breaks! Edith Kollath steps in and helped hand sew a replacement EL wire driver on the back of a model's skirt, just 15 minutes before the show's start time.

Finally, the models are in place on Fashion Geek platforms. Fashion Indie did a fantastic job running the event. They helped find the location Pop Lounge, managed the guest list, told the models when to smile, and the DJ's where to stand. As the guests begin pouring in, someone noted that the nerds tended to congregate towards the back of the room, while the fashion designers stood in the front near the models. Everyone munched on bacon toffee and chocolate covered Pop Rocks from Danielle Bilton. We listened to digital music from Eric Skiff. Then DJ Joey Mariano played digital music live from his hacked guitar and hacked Game Boy. In the end, I think everyone all had a good time.

You can watch a video of the fashion presentation by Bre Pettis here:

Thanks to CRAFT for letting me share my behind the scenes with you. I'll be back here later next month with a fashion project. Until then, catch up with me on my blog Fashionnerd.com.

Here's all the Behind the Scenes posts:

• Behind the Scenes of Fashion Geek: Designing Fashion with Electronics
  
• Behind the Scenes of Fashion Geek: DIY Fashion Show
• Behind the Scenes of Fashion Geek: Quick Update

Fashion Geek is crafts meets fashion. I followed the fashion design process: gathering inspiration, sketching, making samples, and drafting patterns to create designs that everyone can DIY. Most electronic clothing is futuristic and sci-fi looking. But to me the future is now. I want to make fashion and technology cute, friendly, and accessible to everyone — something that everyone can make and wear. My inspiration is cute things like Tokidoki + J-pop (Japanese pop culture) with a bit of a hipster edge to make the style more wearable for today. I use a lot of trim, ribbons, bells, beads, and cut-out flowers because it's the little things that make a difference.

Even though there are many cute designs and embellishments, Fashion Geek is not only for girls. Projects like the EL Wire Shoes were inspired by the brightly colored fun clothing of Kid Robot and Japanese hip hop clothing brand Bathing Ape. I wanted to give the shoes an under light glow, but how could I add this without making it look tacky? I thought back to the super cushioned Nike Air Jordans, and added the glow in the cushion. Now we have a shoe with under lighting that is perfect for the Bathing Ape, Kid Robot, and post-Heatherette customer. In true hipster fashion, there is of course a hoodie, the Headphone Hoodie, that plays music in the hood.

My favorite design is the Felt Flower Flash Drive, a USB thumb drive necklace, which I wear all the time. It's oversized and truly inspired by the cute things of J-pop. You can see it plugged into the computer, and me wearing it while MTV films my model call. Stay tuned for my next CRAFT entry Wednesday as I cast models, grab hair and make-up tear sheets, and throw together a few more garments Project Runway-style for the big Fashion Geek presentation this Thursday, March 19th. You can also catch up with me on my blog, Fashionnerd.com.