This hoodie can sense and react to weather

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This hoodie will emit various lighting effects based on the forecasted precipitation, temperature, and wind speed.

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As they say, April showers bring May flowers. Or, in Barbara Eldredge’s case, a flower-covered hoodie that illuminates based on the weather forecast.

The aptly-named Spring Hoodie, which is actually a combination of two inexpensive hoodies from Old Navy, is packed with an Adafruit FLORA (ATmega32U4), a CC3000 Wi-Fi module and a lithium battery, all hidden inside an inner pocket. 18 NeoPixel LEDs were embedded inside of fake flowers adorning the hood. In order to protect and conceal the wiring, the Maker turned one of the two sweatshirts inside-out and placed it directly within other. (Or as Eldredge calls it, create a “hoodie sandwich.”) Just so she never had to take the FLORA out, the Maker also added a button that is tasked with turning the wearable on/off.

“When I turn on the hoodie, the Wi-Fi module tethers to my phone, and the FLORA uses it to connect to a simple PHP web page pulling three-hour forecast data for the predicted precipitation, temperature, and wind speed from the Open Weather Map API,” Eldredge writes.

Once the FLORA is connected over Wi-Fi, the lapel flower emits green to show that it is indeed working. When it connects to the webpage, the ATmega32U4 based MCU collects the weather information and uses it to control the color, brightness and changing of the LED flowers. The color adjusts based on the amount of predicted precipitation. In other words, the more rain that is predicted, the more the LEDs will become blue (and not red/orange).

Meanwhile, the intensity of the LEDs is dependent upon temperature — the warmer, the brighter. Though she wanted some slight pulsing or suggestion of movement in the lights, the speed of this movement is actually dictated by the predicted wind speed. The faster the wind, the faster the lights will change or flicker.

“The Spring Hoodie is admittedly a pretty wacky piece of clothing. But after the cold wet winter we’ve had, I’m ready for flowers and color. And I like that it’ll always let me know how the weather’s going to be,” she concludes.

Interestingly enough, for those spring days where you can’t decide as to whether it’s too cold to wear a lightweight jacket, the hoodie will do it for you. Should the temperature dip below an appropriate level, the wearable won’t turn on at all.

Want a Spring Hoodie of your own? Head over to the Maker’s official project page on element14 here, and check it out in action below.