Archive for the 'DIY - Corner' Category

If you are working on a cool DIY Wearable Electronic project and want to add some bling to it, check out the latest Wearable Electronic DIY module from Aniomagic called the ‘mimeolight‘.

This module must be one of the easiest ways to add some magic light effects to your electronic craft projects with customizable blinking patterns.

Aim a flashlight or wave your hands in front of it and it will record and repeat those patterns.

To get mimeolight’s attention flash a light source 3 times within a second over it and it will blinking 4 times rapidly showing you that it got your attention. Flash your pattern and when you are done let it do it’s magic by playing back your pattern. That’s all there is to it.

The idea for the mimeolight was inspired by Alex Weber’s Programmable LED Instructables project and by research at the Craft Technology Lab.

Get a couple of them and play around, each costs just $10.- available by Aniomagic where you can find other Wearable Electronic DIY materials as well.

The only thing you need to do is sew it to a 3 or 5 volt power source (like a button cell battery) and you got a unique and interactive bracelet or T-Shirt decoration or a bit of a personal touch on your bag or - there are no limits to your creativity.

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Leah Buechley the Innovator and Creator of the most advanced e-textile kit, the LilyPad Arduino, keeps on surprising the world with new ideas fusing electronic and clothing.

Her latest work a turn signal biking jacket is an excellent example how e-textiles can add high value to ‘conventional’ clothing.

Safety and visibility while cycling in low light and night condition is a cause of great suffering around the world.

Improving the visibility of cyclists is a big business but a real good solution is far from available.

Almost all products in the market use reflective materials, they only ‘light up’ when light hits this material.

Active light like EL or LED, the later have more light power, increase the visibility greatly.

Integrating LEDs in clothing and use them to indicate the change of direction of a bicycle rider increases tremendously the visibility and with it the road safety of cyclists.

Leah’s Cycling Jacket is based on her LilyPad Arduino, some LEDs and wrist mounted switches for the direction control creating a jacket for cyclists that combines the most critical safety aspects for cyclists in low light or dark conditions.

Sure, Leah’s concept could be integrated into backpacks or other clothing items or even caps - whatever fashion designers can envision. The core idea is there and the benefits for people, especially cyclists is great.

For reference: another concept of a cycling jacket with direction indication can be found on one of our previous posts.

I wonder how long it will take to get cycling gear with such great safety enhancement functions into the stores.

[source: DVICE]

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Keep it simple yet effective is the tag-line of the DIY project ‘Soft-circuit LED Bracelet‘ available for inspiration and do-it-yourself production by Instructables.com

The creator of the instructable, REACTIVEFashion, shows a quick and easy way how to make a sparkling fabric bracelet without the need of a solder iron.

The bracelet is build in a similar to the one we have seen from Leah Buechley. The difference is a simpler design to show how easy it can be to sew a circuit, connect power and some LEDs.

The switch is realized either via conductive Velcro or via snap buttons. Close the bracelet on your wrist and it starts it’s sparkle.

Each step is explained with text and images on how to sew the circuit and attach the other elements. The instruction includes a complete list of the required materials and where you can get them.

About the creator of this DIY instruction: REACTIVEfashion is a cross-disciplinary collaborative project created by Angela Sheehan and Rebecca Grabman at Bennington College.

Those two creative ladies have more fabulous Wearable Electronic concepts on their Website, demonstrating the combination of physical computing and costume design.

The REACTIVEfashion concepts are a series of wearable computing art projects exploring the intersection of technology, clothing and performance.

My favorite is the Formalwear concept, costumes that interact with each other as they performer themselves interact. Another interesting concept is the Motorized Dress which is in terms of functionality along the lines of Hussein Chalayan’s transformer dresses.

Check out the complete list of projects from Angela Sheehan and Rebecca Grabman on their Website.

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Our last Top 10 Christmas gift guide for Wearable Electronic gives a kaleidoscopic view on items ranging from books to DIY kits and other practical products.

For book lovers among our reader we have or ‘Read This‘ section in our blog that gives an overview of interesting book about and around Wearable Electronic. You can find short reviews on this page as well as links to shopping sites to order our Christmas gift.

My hottest tip for a Wearable Electronic book is Fashioning the Future from Suzanne Lee. A fabulous overview of the past, present and future of Wearable Electronic with many illustrations and inspiring text. Available by Amazon for $ 35.70

The second book tip is Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance by Matilda McQuaid. This book is not specific about Wearable Electronic but an excellent source of inspiration for future Intelligent Textile engineers and designer. Available by Amazon for $ 21.87

If you or the person you want to give a Christmas gift likes to make stuff, giving a DIY kit for Wearable Electronic is a unique option. It does not only address the creative side but one can show off ones creations by wearing it.

A easy to use for beginner as well as the creative advanced is our newly discovered DIY Electronic Sewing kit. Simple without the need of electronic tools, this kit is available for $ 25.- by this online store.

For the electrically advanced DIY enthusiast is the LilyPad created by Leah Buechely. There are almost no limits on the function and fashion that can be realized with the LilyPad. Starting at $ 55.85 the LilyPad offers many options to mix and match your skills and creativity.

Solar bags have been the hot item this year and our own Solar bag DIY project could be another inspiration for a creative and unique gift idea. Check out our instruction for this project with the links to the sources where to buy the component that will cost around $ 65,- including a large solar panel.

My next tip is the Numetrex Sports bra, tank top or shirt. Numtrex newly developed HRM sensor works with almost any HRM watch on the market which makes the Numetrex system very universal and a practical and unique gift for the fitness enthusiasts. Numetrex has special Christmas promotions starting at $ 99.- on Numetrex online shop.

Music and Sons T-Shirts are my favorites, simple and cool looking. The selection of different styles keeps on growing, there should be the perfect ‘must have’ for everyone. Starting as low as $ 66.- Music and Sons is running a special Christmas promotion as well. Hop over and check out Music and Sons complete program.

How about a nice, decorative pillow with a unique twist? My choice would be the Huggable pillow from Diana Lin Design that brings light and atmosphere into your home. Candles do create atmosphere with their soft light but you can’t cuddle them. The huggable pillow decorates and gives a magic light touch to your live. It’s available for $ 160.- by Diana Lin’s online store.

Another nice gift idea is the soft touch light dimmer. The Pom Pom wall dimmer from International Fashion Machines. This light dimmer is a very unique option to soften your home by using the magic textile to switch your lights. Available in different styles and colors for $ 99.- by IFM online store.

For the party and club fan the LumiTop or LumiShirt might be another gift idea with a unique twist. It’s fun, it’s cool, it’s magic and it’s the best clubbing outfit you can get. A selection of colors and styles is available and goes for $ 149.99 by this online store.

This list concludes our suggestions for Wearable Electronic Christmas gifts. All of these items have in common that they are unique gift ideas. Wearable Electronic addresses the fashion forward thinking people who want choices that are different from the mainstream. Wearable Electronic products will certainly make fun either by wearing and using them or making own creations with a DIY kit.

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I found a cute, simple electronic sewing kit offered by aniomagic.com that can make the perfect Christmas gift for the creative people among our reader.

You might not be able to create with this kit such attention magnets like Moritz Waldermeyer did recently but you can create cute little Wearable Electronic fashion accessories for your bag or shirt or jacket.

The site has some examples to demonstrate how the electrical sewing kit can be used and offers a detailed description with many photos to show how to work with the different components of the electronic sewing kit.

No worry, it’s much easier as you might think thanks to the simplicity of this kit.

The electronic sewing kit contains: two hand-made “LED sequins”, a fabric switch, soft battery holder and battery, conductive thread and a patch of fabric.

The complete kit can be ordered here and goes for $ 15.- and shipping is free!

Nwanua Elumeze, CEO and researcher on customizable clothing and jewelry is behind this fabulous simple but very inspiring concept of the the electronic sewing kit™.

You do not need any solder iron or other electronic tools just a needle, scissor and your imagination. It’s a needlework project with a touch of technology.

Impress your family or friends with this unique Christmas gift or make your own creation as a very unique, creative and personal gift.

In either way, a cute and creative Christmas surprise.

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Another funstastic weekend is ahead of us so I thought to bring up something for the fun and creative side of you.

A DIY project seems to fit this requirements well and if a DIY project is somehow related to Wearable Electronic, we are hooked.

Caleb John Clark, a men who likes to document, distill and disseminate humanizing media in the area of instructional design (that are his words on his blog), created an Solar powered Bicycle Helmet with safety lights integrated.

You can find the complete instructions on Instructables, THE site to look for amazing DIY projects.

The Solar powered Bicycle Helmet uses a flexible solar panel, similar but smaller to the one we used for our DIY Solar Bag. The solar energy captured by the solar panel charges batteries which in turn give the power to LED lamps that make you more visible when you cycle on the dangerous streets at night.

The instruction is fairly simple to follow, no need to make a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) or getting any electronic components other than the solar panel with battery holder, some LED with holder and a switch.

Here is a link to a short video, demonstrating the helmet’s light in action.

This might be the right job for the weekend if you are a cyclist who wants to make an occasional ride after sunset. No problem with the Solar powered Helmet that has stored the suns light for your safety.

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I have to lift my hat, so to speak, to wu-lee for the creation of the LED Hat. This concept of Wearable Electronic might not fall into the latest fashion trend but I do admire the creativity that motivated wu-lee to make this demonstrator.

You can find on this Site more details how wu-lee designed and created the LED Hat. It uses a mesh that carries 1024 LED!

That’s a lot of wiring and soldering. The construction notes are a very interesting and a inspirational read.

The great thing about this concept is that anything can be displayed on the matrix of 16 (vertical) and 64 (horizontal around the hat) pixels.

Images, icons, text, anything can be visualized in animated form to express yourself, light up your party or simple use your hat to advertise. Now that’s what I call ‘working with the hat head.

The integration looks very neat and clean and the animation that can be seen in the demo video give a very powerful idea of the potential that is inside this Hat concept.

wu-lee’s construction notes might also serve as inspiration for students, DIY fans or even a mighty big company to come up with better, useful, practical and most of all more fashionable products that light up to positively influence our mood by changing the color of our clothing, bags and yeah - even hats.

Light, especially animated light displays that react to certain situations have always had a fascination and having the possibility to change our outfit (the color of it) in line of our emotions is one of the wishes of fashion designers as well as for consumer.

May the light come over out of our clothing soon.

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Our reader tamberg pointed us to the ‘digg me’ Shirt, a very well documented Wearable Electronic Instructables project and just the right stuff to write about at the end of the week when we switch to an more relaxed mode.

The ‘digg me’ Shirt is a truly Wearable Electronic DIY project combining the usage and creativity of e-textiles, clothing and electronic elements.

Besides many tips and tricks you will see on how to create your own DIY ‘digg-me’ shirt you will find a concept for making your own e-textile switch, very interesting and it looks that this switch works perfectly.

The ‘digg-me’ shirt comes from Instructables member thydzik who has created an excellent instruction down to the smallest details on how everyone can/could create his/her own digg-me Shirt.

A couple of YouTube hosted videos will help you to make your own shirt. The video below shows how the ‘digg-me’ Shirt works:

Wearing this T-Shirt shows everyone around how popular you are - like on the Internet with the digg-it badge on your Blog.

It has never been easier to have double fun: first by building the digg-me shirt and then be wearing it and collecting your diggs.

Just in case so you know: ‘digg it’ from digg.com is a place for people to classify content from anywhere on the web. In certain circles a high digg number means importance, relevance, popularity. Collecting many diggs on your shirt will attach those attributes to your Web2.0 citizenship.

I told you at the begin: the weekend is just around the corner, so why not have a bit of fun.

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