And the Wearables Challenge winner is…

element14 has chosen two winners from eight global finalists as part of its “Get Closer” Wearables Challenge. The contest challenged engineers, hobbyists and Makers to design a wearable project using Adafruit’s Atmel-powered FLORA. The two winners, announced earlier this week, developed a unique LED umbrella and ColorCam based on Adafruit’s versatile platform.

The LED umbrella – equipped with LED neopixel strips that change color – was submitted by Leslie Birch of Philadelphia. It features three modes: color match, which uses a color sensor to match colors; a rainbow display; and a simulated rainfall.

Meanwhile, Linda Kaspers of The Netherlands created the ColorCam to help teach children colors. When the user takes a picture of any one of Linda’s felt pictures, they are given three color choices on the back of the camera.

As shown in the video above, one of the choices is the matching color, with a series of green lights appearing if the correct color is selected.

Other notable projects included a navigation glove, a family of suites comprised of colored strobe LED lights and a GPS-equipped hat showing neopixel displays based on checked-in locations.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Adafruit’s wearable electronics platform is powered by Atmel’s popular Atmega32u4 microcontroller (MCU). The device boasts built-in USB support, eliminating the need for pesky special cables and extra parts.

Unsurprisingly, numerous Makers are currently using Adafruit’s FLORA to design a wide range of creations. The wearables trend isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon, either. According to element14, clothing capable of recognizing and relaying the user’s location, environment or status is quickly ushering in a new generation of industrial applications and personal platforms.