Fitting nicely to the start of Open Softwear, a book/guide/project to help getting started with wearable electronic technologies, the launch of ‘How to get what you want‘ a website with the aim to be a comprehensible, accessible and maintainable reference resource for everything around eTextiles and wearable electronic offers information for the more advanced eTextile designer.

Created by Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi, ‘How to get what you want‘ is already at the launch full with information about materials, tools, references, example projects and a load of eTextile DIY articles Hannah has published over the past many month on Instructables but also brand new DIY examples around her famous stretch sensors.

Browsing through the site, you can find main chapters such as connectors, sensors, traces, conductive and non-conductive materials, techniques and tools, each having a list of specific sub-chapters going into very detailed explanations for each of them.

Example projects show step-by-step instructions on how to build applications with the components and materials introduced throughout the site. Another impressive place is the download section providing stencils for many of the examples of this site.

The list is just too long to write up here you better click over to ‘How to get what you want’ and dig into the world of eTextiles.

The wearable electronic community got two excellent resources providing a more organized, structured entry point for acquiring the necessary basic knowhow about wearable technologies. These initiatives will greatly help aspiring fashion designer with ambitions to explore interactive fashion design.

Wearable electronic designer and crafter just got a new, fabulous source of information and inspiration from Open Softwear and it’s authors Tony Olsson, David Gaetano, Jonas Odhner, Samson Wiklund.

Open Softwear is a book about Arduino boards, conductive fabric, resistive thread, soft buttons, LEDs, and other things specifically targeted towards wearable electronic prototyping.

The eBook centeres around the Arduino platform covering both the ‘standard’ Arduino and the LilyPad Arduino. It is split into three parts covering in the first section the basics of hardware, software and the use of the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Part two give examples of using eTextile materials and the Arduino to make first cool projects involving LEDs, Piezo speaker and my favorite, the Digital and analog zipper.

The third part is dedicated to show how to write programs for the Arduino platform. This all might sound very technical for fashion/clothing designer but don’t be afraid, it is easy explained and covers just as much as is needed for wearable electronic and not for building an new space station.

The book is in a Beta version right now but has already over 100 pages full of highly interesting material. The authors are looking towards the eTextile community to read this beta version and report back whatever seems is missing or needs to be corrected.

The team is looking for pictures of projects similar to the examples in the book. If you have made any and want to contribute, contact Open Softwear under info [at] softwear.cc, or leave a comment on their site.

Open Softwear – the book is open source and can be downloaded freely via this link (PDF file) or via the Open Softwear website.

[via: Fashioning Technology]

WeaveZine published an highly interesting article about Lynne Bruning‘s e-textile weaving technique.

The article explains the advantage the weaving process provides over sewing with electrically conductive yarn.

A detailed description, illustrated with sketches and many photos, explains the use of the clasped-weft technique, a weaving technique Lynne found out to provide perfect conditions for integrating conductive yarn and other electrical e-textile components during the weaving process.

The result of this unique technique is the complete and seamless integration of electrical components like LEDs, accelerometers, sonar units or LilyPad components into woven cloth.

Every single step is well documented in text and photos which makes it easy to follow step-by-step. An excellent source of inspiration and a highly recommended ‘Must-read’ article at WeaveZine.

I want to close this blog post with a line from Lynne I picked up in her article: ‘If you can dream it, you can find the hardware to build it!‘

Hannah Perner-Wilson added a cute little DIY project to her growing Instructables collection: the Fabric & Bead Tilt Sensing Bracelet.

What does the bracelet do? It is decorated with six conductive fabric petals and a thread of beads with a metal bead at the end.

Designed to make (electrical) contact when the metal bead is inside one of the conductive petals and when the bead ends up between two petals results in twelve position indicators.

It is up to your creativity and fantasy to find a useful or fun application where you can use this instruction. Controlling light or sound effects on clothing related to arm movement could be one example but I guess there will be a long list of things to do with this idea.

What I like on Hannah’s step-by-step overview is the creative way how to jump from the textile electronic to the ‘hard’ world of conventional electronic. A simple but effective ‘interposer’ to connect to a standard Arduino board. This can be very useful for testing out new projects before integrating the electronic more seamlessly via the LilyPad Arduino.

I give a special thumbs-up to the tip of using a nail clipper to cut off component legs

The complete material shopping list and tools requirement can be found on her Instructables together with the very detailed step-by-step instruction how to build your own tilt sensor bracelet.

Textile electronic hasn’t left it’s infancy state yet but there is already another electronic revolution on the horizon in form of Paper electronic.

Leah Buechley who is one of the main driving sources in the e-textile innovation not least with her creation of the LilyPad system has reached out to paper substrate.

Adapting the LilyPad concept and replacing textiles with paper Leah uploaded a series of photos to her Flickr stream inclusive a short video showing how Paper Computing works.

Painting a picture with conductive ink and connecting LilyPad paper modules via small magnetic contact points.

I like the idea of the magnetic connection as you might have seen on my blog post yesterday as those magnets make a reliable electrical contact and are very easy to attach and take off.

Smartly integrated into clothing design (or paintings), the magnetic attachment concept gives even greater freedom to ‘reconfigure’ our future clothing.

A year ago a team of MIT researcher, Marcelo Coelho and Pattie Maes in collaboration with Joanna Berzowska (well known in the wearable electronic space) and Lyndl Hall introduced the Pulp-Based Computing project, a series of explorations that combine smart materials, papermaking and printing.

By integrating electrically active inks and fibers during the papermaking process, it is possible create sensors and actuators that behave, look, and feel like paper.

The electronically-enhanced paper is build up from a first layer of paper pulp, added on this are wires or patterns of conductive ink and top it off with another layer of pulp. Pressing and drying this sandwich leaves electronics embedded within the paper.

Ok, so far with our excursion into the paper domain. No worry our dear reader, we are not including paper electronic into our field of coverage but the example of using conductive ink to create design elements and use them for electronic signal transfer is highly interesting to explore in the e-textile field and the magnetic attachments is a very appealing concept that should be in the creative toolbox of future interactive fashion designer.

[via Makezine and NewScientist]

A recent article by Charlie Foster for Forbes.com about the wearable electronic DIY movement describes the ‘cross over point’ between the ‘boy’s only’ club of silicon based tinkering and the ‘arts-and-crafts’ community traditionally a more feminine domain.

The marriage of tech and fashion opens the doors for crafters to learn how to solder and tinkerers to learn sewing.

The article describes how Leah Buechley started out in 2005 by creating her now famous LED tank top, one of the first Do-It-Yourself wearable electronic project. Since then Leah has tirelessly invented, developed and created components for use in the e-textile environment merging the electronic with the textile world.

Leah’s work brought immense advancements into the wearable electronic DIY community with the creation of the LilyPad Arduino, a ‘textilized’ circuit board with microprocessor and other essential ‘ready to use’ e-textile components. The  availability of the LilyPad components provide DIY enthusiasts a quick way to build interactive fashion projects or just have fun with a bit of interactive, blinking fashion accessories or, as Syuzi Pakhchyan formulates: “Who needs diamonds when you have LEDs?” in her book ‘Fashioning Technology‘.

As regular reader of talk2myShirt you are of course up-to-date with the developments of the commercial side of wearable electronic as well as the fast growing DIY interest into sewing ‘textilized’ electronics to create interactive clothing.

Interactive Clothing that serves as second skin, interacting and reacting to our environment we live in, bringing back the form of interaction with our environment we have lost at the moment humans started to cover the skin with dead, lifeless materials called textiles.

Wearable Electronic is not only iPod controlling jackets and bags. Wearable Electronic will extend our senses, senses we have lost or we cover up.

DIY activities alone will not be able to accomplish this target but the DIY community can and will unleash a huge pool of creativity which can lead into successful implementation into (mass)consumable products.

Visit Forbes.com to read the complete article, it’s a great summary of the wearable electronic DIY movement.

A cute little DIY project from Portuguese couple Ana Pires and João Silva demonstrates how to make a first wearable electronic outfit for your little one – Firefly Booties.

The fireflies on the Baby Booties are lit up with an LED powered by a hidden CR2016 lithium battery. You can find very detailed instructions on how to make the firefly booties on Craftzine or on the Etsy How-To page.

The Firefly Baby Booties have made ‘huge waves’ since they where submitted to the Michael Miler Baby Bootie Contest organized by Craftzine and led to the posting of the DIY instruction by Ana Pires and João Silva.

As the firefly booties contain small electronic components on a baby article you do have to pay attention to the safety precautions Ana Pires and João Silva attached to their DIY instruction.

Head over to either place above and check out the beautiful simplicity of this fireflies, a cute little weekend project.

High tech gloves do get a lot of attention lately as you might have seen on our blog. Each of those ideas address, or try to address, different aspects of our daily life to make our lives more convenient or improve the work environment.

Christopher Mitchell created the Clove 2 glove concept which is attacking text input on computers. Sure, sitting on a desk in front of a computer does not require a glove text input but for certain jobs like warehousing, such input device might be a great help.

The Clove 2 is a data glove for one-handed typing. The hand/finger gesture signals are transmitted to a computer which where a software is running interpreting the finger gestures into normal typing commands.

A 31-combination finger choding design with three modes allow every key on a standard keyboard to be typed with minimal effort. The Clove 2 system consists of three components, the glove itself, the bluetooth module, and a custom charger for the Bluetooth module.

Typing with this glove is not as complicated as it might sound: each finger movement or combination is a key stroke. And like typing on any regular keypad functions like ‘Alt’ or ‘Shift’ key can be made as well.

I guess some learn-in time will be required but after that, the typing will run smoothly.

If you want to give it a try and make your own Clove 2, Christopher has made one of the most extensive and detailed DIY instruction I have come across so far.

As required skills he states: Basic knowledge of sewing, soldering, and hot gluing, the ability to cut and sand plastic and basic knowledge of programming / scripting languages to modify the software. Sounds manageable for the wearable electronic enthusiasts.

Click over to his instruction to check out how the Clove 2 is made. There is also a video demonstrating the Clove 2 in action.

[via Hack a Day]

Technology and crafting is a fast growing field judging on the many workshops and books that have been or will be released soon, helping all the ‘smart crafters’ to get started and inspired.

The latest addition to our wearable electronic library comes from Syuzi Pakchyan: Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting

Written for a broad audience, this book demonstrates how to blend sewing and assembly techniques with traditional electronics to assemble simple circuits using conductive thread, solder joints for snaps, and switches for buttons. With the sewing machine as a viable substitute for the soldering iron, you can craft a new generation of objects that are interactive, quirky, and fashion-conscious.

In Fashioning Technology, you’ll find a reference section that breaks down the materials, components, and tools with clear, concise explanations and photos, a wide range of projects, including electronic accessories, interactive plush toys, and color-changing blinds, all using diverse crafting techniques. For seasoned crafter interested in incorporating simple electronics into their own projects will find inspirational material as well as unconventional ways to create novel projects.

Syuzi Pakchyan is a user experience designer and tinkerer working and residing in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in Media Design from the Art Center College of Design. Her MFA thesis titled “SparkLab” investigates the intersection between culture, technology and craft. She is currently working as a freelance Media and Interaction Design Consultant and teaches robotics classes to children.

A selection for Syuzi Pakchyan’s creative projects can be found on her site SparkLab. My personal favorite is her Wearable Light, a leather cuff with LEDs embedded inside. The Velcro functions as a switch so the bracelet only illuminates when it is in active use. The detailed instruction for building the Wearable Light can be found here.

Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting should be in every library of wearable electronic designer and crafter who are interested in merging technology with clothing and fashion accessories.

Leah Buechley published teaser photos of her turn signal jacket a few month ago but no description on how she did it. The wait is over, Leah posted an extensive DIY description on her Website and on Instructables.

As with all other projects Leah has published on her site, everything you need to build your own turn signal jacket is available: a shopping list for the materials and tools, source code to get started quickly and a step by step description with many photos make it easy to create the turn signal jacket.

At the heart of the system is Leah’s LilyPad Arduino, the most advanced wearable electronic tool set on the market and the reason why the turn signal jacket can be made in such a simple way.

The direction indication is activated via a small switch that can be placed on the jacket anywhere but as Leah suggests the best location for the switch might be on the sleeve near the wrist.

A cool feature is the single LED light on the sleeve that gives visual indication if the arrows on the back are working and you can trust the direction indicator does its job.

The turn signal jacket is one of the best concepts/instructions/inspirations for DIY wearable electronic I have seen so far. It’s easy to follow thanks to the LilyPad modules and demonstrates a very practical variant of interactive clothing that can be easily made yourself.

Leah’s instructions build an excellent basis from which wearable electronic DIY enthusiasts can derive versions to suit her/his own unique style. The reward of the electronic stitching: having fun and get a bit more safety when cycling at night.