e-textile DIY – touch-sensitive, musical light-up hoodie

Posted by eric at talk2myShirt

on April 4, 2009

A nicely designed e-textile DIY project from Instructables member Kanjun is the ‘musical touch-sensitive light-up hoodie‘.

This interactive hoodie changes it’s behavior – yeah, smart clothing will have it’s own character – depending on how charged you are.

Everyone has more or less body conductivity which is influenced by the environment. Humidity level, the material of our clothing are some factors influencing the body conductivity.

This body charge can be dangerous to sensitive electronic devices that’s why technicians as well as DIY enthusiasts need to ground themselves when opening a computer case for example.

Kayun’s hoodie is making use of this fact to visualize our charging level via light pattern and to make our charge level audible via a small speaker inside the hoodie.

The core elements of this fabulously documented DIY project revolve around the LilyPad system, conductive thread and fabric and some other commonly available crafting materials.

The instructions provide a wealth of tips and examples on how to plan, design and integrate a smart system into an exiting piece of clothing. Kayun included the code for the LilyPad Arduino to get you started in no time but the system has a lot of room for variations and your own creative expansion of this concept.

Click over and check out the complete instruction and charge yourself up to make an ‘musical touch-sensitive light-up hoodie‘ that shows how energized you are.