Designed by Oslo, Norway design firm Drap go Design, the Interacket is an ATmega328 powered jacket that lets a wearer interact with the objects around them by mimicking their color.
The garment uses a built-in sensor on its sleeve to detect nearby objects, adjusting the color of its LED strips to blend in to its surroundings like a chameleon. According to the firm, the jacket is just one of a many new products inspired by animal powers.
“Many animals got cool ‘powers’ but few of these can be translated directly to humans. We are not be able to use a sonar the way the bat does and we can’t see all the colors the shrimp does, it is physically impossible for our eyes to see more then the colors we already do,” the Makers noted on their Hackaday page.
“Our goal was not to replicate the powers of the animals as exact as we could. We wanted to give the users the idea and the concept of the interaction animals have. We would abstract interactions and change input and output based on how we best could interpret powers from the animals and give it to the users.”
In order to enable these interactions, the Interacket is equipped with a pair of Arduino Uno (ATmega328), Adafruit NeoPixel LED strips and Adafruit color sensors, all of which powered by a single 9V battery. The jacket itself is comprised of reflective foil and diffusive fabric to enable the piece of clothing to prominently display the colors picked up by the sensors.
While the Interacket prototype may have limited real-world potential, the next version of this hue-morphing jacket (which is currently in the works) will change that.
Although it may not be effective as camouflage like its lizard inspiration, potential applications could range from enhanced safety during nighttime activities such as biking or walking to a pretty vibrant outfit for the club scene.
The Drap go Design creation can be found on Hackaday, while those interested in having color-changing powers may also take a look at the Makerrific piece of outerwear in the video below.
October is here and while most of us are urgently searching the web for the perfect Halloween costume to wow friends and family, our pals at Adafruit have come up with the perfect Atmel based solution.
Inspired by the Cassiopeia constellation, this galactic makeup uses the GEMMA platform (ATtiny85) along with a series of FLORA NeoPixels. The team behind the build used some clever soldering to link five NeoPixels to the Gemma, while keeping the design light enough so that the LED structure could be worn for long periods of time.
The Adafruit design is directly mounted to the user’s forehead and an accompanying makeup tutorial turns the costumed constellation wearer into a walking galaxy. While some of your friends will likely go with the old standbys this Halloween, such as a cop, a cat, or some assortment of superheroes, why not stand out like a star in the night sky?
Feeling inspired? This timely guide will show you how to bring some celestial luster to this month’s big holiday, or perhaps even a Comic-Con or two.
During his Maker Faire Rome presentation, Arduino Co-Founder Massimo Banzi offered attendees a preview of the company’s new collaboration with Adafruit — the Arduino Gemma, a tiny wearable MCU board packed in a 1-inch (27mm) diameter package.
Similar to the original Adafruit Gemma, the mini yet powerful wearable platform board is powered by the versatile ATtiny85. The board will be default-supported in the Arduino IDE, equipped with an on/off switch and a microUSB connector. Since it is programmable with the Arduino IDE over USB, all Makers will have the ability to easily create wearable projects with all the advantages of being part of the Arduino family.
“We wanted to design a microcontroller board that was small enough to fit into any project, and low cost enough to use without hesitation,” Adafruit’s Limor Fried (aka LadyAda) explained in a blog post last September. “Gemma is perfect for when you don’t want to give up your Flora and aren’t willing to take apart the project you worked so hard to design. It’s our lowest-cost sewable controller.”
Ideal for small and simple projects sewn with conductive thread, the [tinyAVR based] Arduino Gemma fits the needs of nearly every entry-level wearable creations — ranging from reading sensors to driving addressable LED pixels.
To better visualize just how small we are talking, look at this image from an earlier version of the Adafruit Gemma.
“The ATtiny85 is a great processor because despite being so small, it has 8K of flash and 5 I/O pins, including analog inputs and PWM ‘analog’ outputs. It was designed with a USB bootloader so you can plug it into any computer and reprogram it over a USB port (it uses 2 of the 5 I/O pins, leaving you with 3),” Arduino noted in its announcement.
In addition to ATtiny85 MCU, other key hardware specs include:
Operating Voltage: 3.3V
Input Voltage (recommended): 4-16V via battery port
Input Voltage (limits): 3-18V
Digital I/O Pins: 3
PWM Channels: 2
Analog Input Channels: 1
DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 150 mA
Flash Memory: 8 KB (ATtiny85) of which 2.5 KB used by bootloader
SRAM: 0.5 KB (ATtiny85)
EEPROM: 0.5 KB (ATtiny85)
Clock Speed: 8 MHz
MicroUSB for USB Bootloader
JST 2-PH for external battery
For those seeking to use an Arduino Gemma in their next DIY wearable project, the board will be available for purchase on the Arduino Store and Adafruit Industries beginning late Fall 2014.
Metasphere, who recently created a motorcycle remote started using an Arduino and a smartphone, has transformed a once-ordinary biker accessory into a “smart riding jacket.” The garment displays right and left light-up turn signals synced with the bike’s own blinkers via the ATmega32u4 poweredFLORA wearable platform and NeoPixels sewn into the jacket’s fabric.
Metasphere — a responsive platform that acts as mission control for Makers’ programable hardware and software projects — allows the data to be instantly relayed from the bike to the jacket, creating a real-time integrated product that communicates a rider’s intentions clearly and safely.
The Metasphere SDK enabled the Atmel basedArduino board within the motorcycle and the FLORA microcontroller embedded in the jacket to communicate with the iPhone via Bluetooth.
Adafruit NeoPixels were then lined up in a symmetrical pattern on a fabric swatch, sewn with conductive thread and sealed on the back with sugru to preserve the connections. Once completed, corresponding holes were cut into the jacket lining. A SparkFun LilyPad Vibe Board, which was stitched into the inside collar, produces a small vibration whenever the jacket comes within range of the motorcycle and completes the connection.
According to the team of Makers, a FLORA Lux Sensor was added to the outer shoulder area to sense outside light intensity and adjust the brightness of the NeoPixels accordingly. Once these NeoPixels were secured into place, the FLORA and XBee LilyPad were tucked securely into a closed inner pocket, keeping them from getting tangled or interfering with the function of the jacket.
The Color Clock website endeared the online community just a short time ago, and with this inspiration in mind, a Maker by the name of Sound Guy decided to develop his own. With some leftover project parts in hand, Sound Guy constructed his own version that included some extra bells and whistles.
The Color Clock idea revolves around a computer converting the time into a hex value. Then, this data is used to provide a background color that corresponds with that exact moment in time. As the time changes, so does the background and mood of your clock.
Sound Guy had an extra Arduino Uno R3 (ATmega328) and Adafruit 1.8” Color TFT Shield he was looking to repurpose. He went on to solder the Arduino Uno and the TFT Shield together and then looked to attach a Real Time Clock (RTC) module. “To attach the RTC module I happened to have some jumper cables with Dupont connectors, female on one end and male on the other. These are great for connecting to peripherals or breadboards,” Sound Guy writes.
Once completed, he moved onto the coding process. While many of the sketches came directly from the TFT and RTC module, Sound Guy included his own coding and has shared it within his Instructables post.
To make his project stand out from the rest, Sound Guy even incorporated a joystick that allows him to navigate a simple menu. The menu can provide controls for color and screen brightness.
In her article, Louise highlights High Tech High (you read that right!) in San Diego. The school resembles a set from a Pixar movie more than a typical, drab American high school. With spinning pulley systems turning a massive clock and a glass-covered piano front and center, it is obvious this isn’t your ordinary venue of education. Created 14 years ago, CEO and Founding Principal Larry Rosenstock describes the charter school’s core principal as “kids making, doing, building, shaping and inventing stuff” without the focus of one single subject.
Today, a growing number of schools (and other educational venues such as museums) are creating new programs and spaces to enable a greater convergence of both art and technology. Many would compare this “new industrial revolution” as the combination of the old shop class spirit with modern-day technology in do-it-yourself spaces.
With the High Tech High’s wide-open learning process, projects can revolve around history, engineering, and physics all at once; instead of segmented pieces. Stewart notes that some of the previous displays at the school have included “a World War I–era restaurant and cabaret, an art gallery, a museum-like exhibit on the history and physics of baseball, [and] simulations of faraway ecologies.” Talk about variety!
Tony Wagner, a resident at Harvard’s Innovation Lab calls High Tech High his “favorite” school and that other educational institutions with Makerspaces are the future. The Newsweek piece details how not just charter schools are seeing the benefit of the growing Maker Movement, evident by the widespread audience at Maker Faires throughout the world.
Stewart reveals how one student at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York was so inspired by an in-class 3D printing project that he was motivated to purchase his own 3D printer for use at home. Soon, he was designing and printing iPhone cases and his favorite gadgets from video games.
Even public schools are getting in on the act, as Albemarle County Public School’s Superintendent Pam Moran describes her outlook on today’s education as attempting to “make learning so powerful and memorable” and encourage students to be “constantly looking at the world in terms of problems that they can solve.”
Writing for the Huffington Post, Anna Clark details the story of Charlie Lindahl, who learned computer programming in ’68 and ’69 with a modem using an interactive terminal back when everyone was using batch processing with punched cards. “Trying to explain this to people was like being an alien.”
Charlie plans to roll out a startup MerryMaker Labs where a “No Fear Electronics” curriculum will be adopted. Charlie’s goal is to minimize any trepidation an individual would have when thinking about taking a step into the Maker world. Have no fear Makers!
Why are we teaching people to make quirky new gadgets out of old and random stuff? “Because it’s fun!” says Lindahl.
As Clark points out, DIY isn’t just for people with nothing better to do; in fact, it’s for anyone and everyone who are intentional about learning, achievement and skills mastery. From the outset of the Maker Movement, coders, knitters, mechanics, electronics tinkerers, masters of the new 3D printing process, apprentices of digital fabrication and even die-hard engineers are turning to Atmel powered devices to bring their ideas to life — maybe that’s a braille printer, a retro robot, a marshmallow canon, or even a prototype of the next big Internet of Things gadget.
When you put it like that, the popularity of the Maker Movement makes perfect sense. “See, when a system stops working — say American manufacturing — doldrums can drag on for years. As certain careers disappear and new roles emerge, folks in transition are wondering, ‘Is there something else out there that I can do?'” asks Lindahl.
Some Makers are constructing new careers as they construct new gadgets. Some Makers are skilled artisans seeking a supportive or collaborative community. Some Makers are hobbyists interested in the robotics wave. Heck, some Makers are even hip-hop artists, musicians and professional athletes. This is what makes the DIY culture so special and ubiquitous.
“And some savvy startups are creating kits to simplify the process. littleBits makes prototyping with electronics simple and fun, like putting together a puzzle. Arduino is an inexpensive microcontroller that can be used for many small DIY or physical and wearable computing projects. Adafruit is a company that sells the pieces and makes the tutorials. Among other things, you can sew your own owl,” the Huffington Post article accentuates.
With more and more creative individuals being given opportunities to explore their innovative habits, the Maker Movement likely won’t be slowing down anytime soon. We can expect to see more people, ranging from hobbyists to embedded designers, turn to creating products instead of only consuming them. This is the future. And, this is fun!
Every hip, trendy new office seems to have a ping-pong table sequestered in the corner of a break room. Even if that that has become common practice in the contemporary office, this concept from across the pond at SI Digital has changed the way the game is played!
With SI Digital’s over-the-top office ping-pong table, each player has an RFID tag embedded into their personal paddle. When they approach the table, they simply wave their handle over a sensor and their image appears on a nearby LCD screen and a game is ready to commence.
Also, instead of tirelessly arguing over the manually tracked score, the team installed two capacitive touch sensors below the table that allow a quick click to add a point under each player’s image. These capacitive touch sensors, built by Adafruit and powered by the Atmel AT42QT1010 were chosen for their ability to trigger precisely after very slight and effortless touches.
Alongside the table, the innovative team placed an Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega168)-powered RFID reader covered with several LEDs to give visual feedback upon being scanned. The RFID tags provide the ability for games to start instantly and for rivalries to be upheld. The team at SI Digital used Node.js and Socket.io to develop an application that gave them the ability to track their live scoring and lifestime statistics. Game on!
Just last year, Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ shot to the top of the charts and launched the mysterious duo back into the center of popular culture. Shorty thereafter, we began to see the emergence of several Daft Punk-inspired, Atmel powered projects ranging from animatronic cakes to slick Tron bars. Today, we’re showing off yet another… okay, just ‘One More Time.’ Adafruit recently created quite the dazzling cosplay outfit influenced by the techno giants mixes two of our favorite things — wearable technology and 3D printing.
Whenever the Daft Punk duo rocks the stage, there is something undoubtedly cool about them. Whether it is their thumping beats, or scintillating laser shows, fans have been enthralled for over two decades. The group’s one standout characteristic has always been their signature flashing helmets. The iconic headwear has become synonymous with classic dance music, and now you can have your very own!
The Ruiz Brothers over at Adafruit have put together a complete step-by-step guide on how to craft a customized Daft Punk lid, including everything from the 3D printing schematics to the required coding.
After a three-day 3D printing session using a semi-transparent PLA filament, the builders had their helmet base. To power the front facing light show, they incorporated the GEMMA and Trinket wearable platform boards — both built around the Atmel ATtiny85 — to serve as the brains of the operation. NeoPixel strips (144 pixel per meter) were laid inside the hollowed out shell, whose translucent material allowed for colorful LEDs can light up just about any room. “This makes the headset great for Maker Faire, household parties, and underground EDM raves,” the folks at Hackaday suggest.
Once installing the LED strips to their liking and programming them to hypnotize onlookers, the helmet was ready to ‘Get Lucky’ and jam! Be careful though, visibility is limited behind those blinding lights!
If you recall, last year the Wall Street Journal reported on the countless amount of people who devised perfect replicas of the helmets worn by the band and sold them for thousands of dollars. Now, thanks to our friends at Adafruit, with just a few microcontrollers, LEDs and a 3D printer, you can make a fully-functional version of one of the designs without breaking the bank. Don’t be daft, go check out the project’s entire breakdown here!
Burning Man has arrived. This week, tens of thousands of burners will head into the Black Rock Desert for the seven-day festival. For those descending into northern Nevada, you’ll love this blinking vest produced by Maker Shaidarelam.
Shaidarelam took Adafruit’s advice and has been working arduously on his costume for nearly a year. Using the ATmega32u4 MCU-basedFLORA platform, the Maker has made a vest that’ll clearly make him stand out in any crowd, even the eclectic gathering at Burning Man!
According to Adafruit, this is the second iteration of his light vest, as this year’s version will be bigger and better than the one he sported to the festival in the past. Using NeoPixels and some nifty sewing, our Maker has created one of the coolest wearable’s we have seen of late.
By incorporating a microphone, the vest can now react to music and even sports a solar power source. As any festival veteran can tell you, charging capabilities are worth their weight in gold at these events. Using the sun to power this vest is nothing short of genius and will make him an even bigger hit among the crowds.
Our clothes already say a lot about us, but thanks to the latest breakthroughs in wearable technology, they’re about to say a whole lot more. For decades, a vast majority of us have turned to fashion to express ourselves, particularly with those good ol’ graphic t-shirts. However, these t-shirts can only go so far. Thanks to the introduction of Arduino and Adafruit, both which offer wearable electronic platforms powered by versatile Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs), we’ve seen a transition from off-the-rack apparel to DIY wearable masterpieces that truly showcase one’s individuality.
“Building electronics with your hands is certainly a fun brain exercise, but adding crafting into the mix really stretches your creativity,” Becky Stern, Adafruit’s Director of Wearable Electronics, recently told ReadWrite. Members of the soft electronics community have been able to bring their ideas to life by adapting various Atmel-powered platforms specifically for wearables, including the Arduino Lilypad (ATmega328V) and Adafruit’s FLORA (ATmega32u4).
Today, we’re taking a look at some of the most innovative, embedded t-shirts that added a Maker twist to the everyday garment. Let’s just say… they’re sew awesome!
A shirt that counts your emails…
A Maker by the name of Chris Ball designed a custom-printed shirt that was capable of displaying the number of unread e-mails in your inbox using an Arduino Lilypad MCU (ATmega328V), a couple of LEDs, conductive thread and a Bluetooth dongle which communicated with a nearby Android phone.
A shirt that plays Tetris…
To celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary, Maker Mark Kerger created a Tetris-playing shirt by embedding an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), four AA batteries and 128 LEDs into the garment. Pretty much the only thing this nifty wearable game can’t do is play the Tetris soundtrack.
A shirt that plays Pong…
Speaking of vintage video games, a young Maker by the name of Spencer recently posted an Instructable detailing the creation of a flexible 14 x 15 pixel, Pong-playing t-shirt. The screen consisted of RGB LED strips, while an Arduino Mega (ATmega1280) served as the brains of the game.
A shirt that plays music…
A Maker going by the name “BBrodsky” gave a much more literal meaning to the term ‘walkman.’ The Maker developed an MP3-equipped workout shirt powered by an Arduino LilyPad (MP3) (ATmega328P) and an accelerometer to detect whether or not the wearer is moving, and if so, it would play his or her music. According to its creator, the goal of the system was to promote an active lifestyle for wearers.
A shirt that visualizes sound…
Created by the folks at New York-based design lab CRATED, the Sync shirt is described by its Makers as “an audio responsive VJ Shirt” that visually connects its wearer to the background music in a club. This visual connection is derived from an LED-embedded patch that is inserted into the front of the shirt, which pulses at varying degrees of intensity depending upon what music is playing. Inspired by the emergence of visual DJs that use light and sound in their performances at nightclubs throughout New York City, London and Europe, this eclectic shirt enables partygoers to become active participants in the light shows instead of just passive watchers.
A shirt that folds itself…
In addition to their aforementioned Sync shirt, Makers Maddy Maxey and Mari Kussman of CRATED have also experimented with what they referred to as “textile manipulation.” According to the duo, the Zygomatic is “a tessellating shirt controlled by a computer interface.” Both Maxey and Kussman believe this is just a small segue to modular clothing systems and a different kind of manufacturing.
A shirt that can change the TV channel…
A few years ago, designer Rebecca Albrand introduced an innovative solution for those who always seemed to misplace the TV remote. Utilizing the body as a platform for control and functionality, the t-shirt can control any television set that is able to connect to a universal remote. Using a conductive thread that’s sewn through the fabric itself, this article of clothing uses soft switches to create a circuit board of sorts.
A shirt that can protect your personal space…
While at a hackathon back in 2011, a DIYer by the name of “Rainycat” designed a temperature sensing t-shirt utilizing an Arduino Lilypad (ATmega328V). The innovative shirt features two cat heads — one green (the color of a cool, calm collected cat), the other red (a hot, angry cat). The LED eyes light up based on temperatures of over and under 27 degrees Celsius. For instance, if the wearer encountered someone speaking loudly to them within close proximity, the heat from their breath would push the sensor Celsius average over this point. Subsequently, the LEDs would turn off the cool, calm green cat head and switch on the red. As the Maker put its, this would be a signal to whomever is causing the angry red cat’s LEDs eyes to light up, to back off “You’re in mah face!”
A shirt that simulates being tackled…
Ever wanted to know what it feels like to be tackled by an NFL linebacker? The Alert Shirt will allow you to just that, all from the comfort of your couch. Connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth, the shirt is embedded with tiny motors replicate just how a football player feels at key moments during a game. Think haptic feedback on a larger scale, and against your body rather than the tip of your finger. As our friends at Adafruit explained, though there have been Makers creating Atmel-powered scarves and t-shirts that can create a vibration sensation for wearers, “this technology is more sophisticated because it is using a lot more data.”
A shirt that sparkles and glows…
The ATmega168-poweredTwirkle Disc Shirt reacts to body movements creating unique light and glow effects. As one of the first commercially available, ready-to-wear LED shirts on the market, Adafruit’s Becky Stern and Ladyada had to take a look inside the motion-activated garment.
A shirt that you can program…
London-based interactive clothing company CuteCircuit had teamed up with Scotch whiskey distillers Ballantine’s to create tshirtOS, the world’s first wearable, sharable and programmable t-shirt. As a futuristic approach to the original canvas of personal expression, the digital T-shirt can be personalized and controlled using an iPhone app via wireless connection. Thanks to its built-in camera, microphone, accelerometer and speakers, wearers have the ability to display tweets, share music, take photos and share photos all from their shirt.
A shirt that can show you affection…
Also designed by the co-Founders of CuteCircuit, Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz, the Hug Shirt is exactly what it sounds like — a shirt that lets people send long distance hugs! The garment is embedded with a number of sensors that feel the strength of the touch, the skin warmth and the heartbeat rate of the sender, while actuators recreate the sensation of touch, warmth and emotion of the hug to the shirt of the distant loved one. As its website explains, the Hug Shirt is a Bluetooth accessory for Java-enabled mobile phones. Hug shirts don’t have any assigned phone number; instead, the data goes directly from the sensors to your mobile phone which then delivers the hug data to your friend’s phone, all seamlessly transmitted via Bluetooth to his or her shirt! “Sending hugs is as easy as sending an SMS and you will be able to send hugs while you are on the move.”
A shirt that rocks out…
Thanks to the folks over at ThinkGeek, simply tap the drums on this interactive shirt with your finger and listen to the tunes play through its embedded speaker. With seven different drum sounds, you’re ready for a personal drum solo on your chest. According to its site, “Once your loop is created, layer additional beats on top to build up a complex rhythm. You can make loops up to 3 minutes long and you’ve got unlimited tracks to play with.”
A shirt that displays messages…
A Maker mom and son recently created an LED matrix shirt that could scroll messages and display simple graphics. Using an Arduino Lilypad (ATmega328) as a controller, a rechargeable LiPo battery, 50 LilyPad LEDs, an FTDI breakout board, a mini USB connector and some conductive thread, the duo completed their mutli-purpose shirt that not only looks good, but can act as a message board and general purpose display. Adding to the fun, the shirt can play four different games controlled by a small joystick!
A shirt hoodie that lets you send discrete messages…
Using an Atmel-basedArduino and an Arduino GSM shield, a pair of New York University students designed what they call the “Smart Hoodie,” a hooded sweatshirt that can respond to various gestures — touching the hood, touching a sleeve and rolling up a sleeve, each of which send a different text message to a pre-programmed contact.
And… now only a few weeks away, World Maker Faire is certainly a place to express yourself with clothing no exception. Here’s just some of our favorite t-shirts from around the grounds last year.
