Control your wearable display with a touch-sensitive belt

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Belt is an unobtrusive touch input device for head-worn displays.

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As the wearable market continue to mature, Makers are coming up with some pretty slick ways to use body-adorned items as interfaces for their mobile devices — whether that’s stroking one’s own hair to discreetly make a phone call or affixing stickers to one’s skin to control their music player. And while Google Glass has yet to experience mainstream popularity, it’s only a matter of time before the technology behind it will be enhanced to the point where it can eventually be integrated into a pair of everyday glasses. Until then, however, a group of researchers from Ulm University in Germany have come up with an alternative solution: your belt.

The aptly-dubbed Belt not only can hold up your trousers, but can enable a user to command their wearable display device as well. The accessory is covered in punk-like, touch-sensitive metal studs, which allow a wearer to slide their thumb across its surface to scroll down lists, tap to make selections, or use other gestures to control the wearable device’s UI — all without ever having to touch the side of their head. What’s more, shortcuts to applications be implemented anywhere along the outside of the belt, whether that means accessing Facebook just above the left-hand pocket or opening up emails right above the rear.

Ultimately, wearers can decide as to how much of the belt they would like to use as a touch-sensitive controller. What’s more, the software can be made intelligent enough to distinguish between an accidental stroke of an arm and an actual gesture, as well as ignore any unwanted activity.

The Belt itself is equipped with an Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega328), a Bluetooth Low Energy module, four SparkFun capacitive touch sensor breakout boards, and a battery to power it up.

“In a qualltative user study with 14 participants, we found out that for short interactions (two-four seconds), most of the surface area is considered as appropriate input space, while for longer interactions (up to 10 seconds), the front areas above the trouser pockets are preferred,” the team writes.

Intrigued? Check out the project’s entire paper here, or watch it in action below.

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.

MetaWear is a mini wearable sensor platform

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MetaWear is a tiny BLE module that can power complete solutions that are merely the size of a button. 

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MetaWear is a tiny wireless sensor platform that enables Makers to build and program their Internet of Things projects right from their smartphones. Recently launched on Kickstarter, the platform works by connecting to any product to a mobile device via Bluetooth LE, then logging or streaming six-axis of motion and environmental data.

Packed with a number of sensors, the lightweight, versatile board is capable of measuring an assortment of information, ranging from acceleration and orientation, to angular velocity and temperature, to pressure and altitude. This makes it applicable to nearly every setting and activity, such as health and fitness, gaming, navigation and sports. Once collected, MetaWear displays the data in real-time with the touch of a button and processes it with the help of its embedded filters. From there, the data can be exported into a CSV file and used in tools like Excel and Python for further analysis and algorithm development.

For instance, users can study their football throw or baseball swing by turning MetaWear into a wearable that can track form or speed of the ball. Beyond that, the board can be embedded into a ski to review a day at the slopes or tagged along inside a backpack during a hike to capture data at its peak.

What’s nice is that MetaWear transforms a smartphone into the ultimate developer’s tool — a programmer and debugger all in one. This permits users to program the board through its accompanying mobile SDK, which communicates with the board via BLE, and then enables them to command it to do just about anything.

“MetaWear is IF THIS THEN THAT for Bluetooth and sensors,” the team writes. “You don’t need to mess around with a firmware engineer, complicated IDEs, expensive debuggers, or embedded programming. Our mobile SDK (iOS and Android) gives you the power to send instructions to the board that are temporary or permanent.”

Based on an ARM Cortex-M0 processor with 256KB of Flash and 16KB of RAM, the board features a rechargeable battery circuit with a microUSB port, exposed GPIOs and an I2C bus for additional sensors, a built-in LED and a push-button. What’s more, the wireless platform has an approximate range of 100 feet and three weeks of continous operation (and six months of idle time) on a single charge.

Interested? Currently live on Kickstarter, MbientLab is seeking $5,000. Shipment is expected to begin in July 2015.

Throw on a pair of #Ravespecs for your next party

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Wondering what to wear for that party? Make yourself some LED glasses.

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What do you get when you combine basic safety goggles, an laser-cut acrylic frame, some electronics and plenty of RGB LEDs? One electrifying pair of #Ravespecs, that’s what. Throw ‘em on and you surely become the ‘light’ of any party.

Created by Lorenzo Wood, the glasses were originally a last-minute, thrown-together idea for a friend’s party. Initially conceived as a mask, the Maker felt that glasses would be “a bit more social.” He thought about powering the specs through a remote battery tucked away in his pocket and running wire to the glasses; however, Wood realized that it would be much more fun, portable, and of course, aesthetically-pleasing to make them self-contained.

“In spite of the rushed build and the shoddy wiring, they turned out to be quite robust. The reason that there are wires visible on the front is that for speed I wired the power with just two stripped wires, threading them in and out of the LED strips and connecting them with solder. I don’t recommend that.”

The shades are built around an A-Star 32U4 MCU (ATmega32U4), adorned vertically with Adafruit NeoPixels and powered by standard Lithium AAA batteries mounted to the frame itself. Since the LEDs consume quite a bit of power, a wearer can expect anywhere between one to two hours of continuous use before having to replace its batteries.

Beyond that, a wearer can easily change the lighting sequences or down the brightness with a little coding, and even try to create designs that don’t engage all the pixels at once, such as strobing rainbow, chasing or police-like effects.

“Because of time, I only had one go at the frame design. I positioned the slits around a typical inter-pupillary distance of 55mm-65mm. In fact, pretty much anyone can see through them (even small children), because the frame is held quite a long way from your face by the safety goggles. The slits could therefore probably be sightly narrower so you could get even more LEDs on.”

With the party now behind him, the Maker reveals that he has already begun working on improving the #Ravespecs. Enhancements include more complex patterns, adding radios for synchronizing more than one pair and enabling wireless controlling, as well as incorporating different sensors. The glasses will be able react in more expressive ways through sound, motion and hand gestures.

See them in action below! If you liked this project, then you’ll love these programmable LED shades from Garrett Mace as well!

Swimmo is the ultimate smartwatch for swimmers

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Swimmo a new smartwatch designed for continuous use underwater.

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While countless wearable devices have been introduced with hopes of revolutionizing athletic activities, from the court to the field, not so many have taken to the water. That is something the company behind Swimmo is hoping to change. For instance, how often have you forgotten the number of laps you swam during a training session, or wished to surpass a personal best and then instantly share it with your friends on social media? That will all be possible thanks to the latest smartwatch designed specifically for continuous underwater use.

Swimmo itself is a sleek, aesthetically-pleasing and comfortable band equipped with a color OLED display that is 100% waterproof. What’s more, the wearable boats a unique “Rotate&Tap” patent-pending technology that allows a swimmer to control the watch using two simple gestures — no gaps between buttons that might let water in.

The device works by monitoring a swim session in real-time and providing immediate feedback to the trainee, helping them to efficiently achieve their results. The device comes with training apps to track performance in the water, such as a heart-rate monitoring IntensityCoach, a speed focused PaceKeeper, and an overall performance gauge TrainingGuide. It will measure total distance in laps, yards or meters, analyze calories burned, and keep tabs on the length of a training session as well. Swimmo will even alert a swimmer with vibrations when it’s time to increase or decrease their speed to better improve their strength by exercising at the right intensity.

Aside from being compatible with other fitness apps, such as RunKeeper, Strava and HealthKit, it also syncs with its own mobile app (available on both iOS and Android) via Bluetooth Smart. Unlike a number of other smartwatches already available today, Swimmo’s basic features can be accessed without having to pair with a phone at all. In an effort to make swimming more social, the gadget enables users to compete with their friends and others nearby through Facebook and Twitter.

Intrigued? Swim on over to its official Kickstarter page, where the team is currently seeking $39,000. Shipment is expected to begin in October 2015.

Maker creates a 3D-printed LED watch with ATmega328P

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Hey, do you know what Tinys.it? 

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The first digital watch, a Pulsar prototype, was developed jointly by Hamilton Watch Company and Electro-Data back in 1970. Finally launched in the spring of 1972, the device was comprised of 18-carat gold and featured a red light-emitting diode (LED) display. Watches with LED displays would remain popular for a few years until being superseded by LCDs, which consumed less battery power and boasted an always-visible display that didn’t require any button-pushing to reveal the time.

Inspired by these retro watches, Alessandro Matera recently created his own 3D-printed LED device based on an ATmega328P and powered by a 3V CR2032 battery. The Maker initially wanted to use the versatile ATtiny85 MCU from his Tinys board as the brains of the operation, but was unable to do so given the limited number of I/O and LEDs that it could drive. Instead, he decided to go with an ATmega328P in TQFP package with 32 pins.

The wearable unit sports 32 LEDs to display the time in both hours and minutes. Since he was unable to use two differently colored lights, a solid light denotes hours while a blinking represents minutes.

“But even if the microcontroller has 32 pins, they aren’t all I/O: only 25 pins can be used for the 32 LEDs and the button. To drive a larger number of LEDs with few pins, I’ve used the Charlieplexing Matrix. This way, I can drive 6 LEDs with only 3 pins.”

In an effort to reduce battery drain, the watch always remains in sleep mode. Just like vintage LED watches, a user must press a button to show the time. To ensure accuracy, Matera used a 32.768 KHz crystal connected to the XTAL pin of the ATmega328P running in asynchronous timing mode. This enabled him to use the MCU’s internal 8Mhz oscillator and the Timer2 overflow (used for the external crystal) as interrupt to increase the seconds. The Maker reveals that dealing with the crystal to get precise time and also multiplexing the LEDs were certainly among the trickiest aspects of the design process.

“After setting up the Timer2 overflow interrupt and the button change-pin interrupt, the microcontroller goes to sleep. Every time the Timer2 goes overflow (one overflow/second), the microcontroller wakes up and increases the seconds,” he writes.

Upon seeing this marvelous DIY timepiece, our friends at Adafruit caught up with Matera. Turns out, he loved their ATmega328P based Solder Time II watch that he used that as the benchmark for his design. However, he was looking for something a bit different and could only find segment LED styles. So just as any Maker would do, he devised his own. While he may have a fully-functioning prototype at the moment, moving ahead he may look to shifting the programming to FTDI and changing the button to a touch sensor.

Time to make your own? Head over to its official project page here, as well as download its sketch and schematics on Github.

Control your smartphone by stroking your hair

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A stroke of genius! These hair extensions let wearers discreetly open applications, send preset messages and broadcast a person’s location.

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Perhaps that woman over there is absent-mindedly stroking her hair, or better yet, maybe she is inconspicously recording a conman’s deception and sharing his whereabouts as we speak. In a project that seems wild enough to be taken right out of a James Bond film, Maker Katia Vega has created an innovative wearable device that enables users to discreetly control their electronic gadgets by simply stroking their hair.

If her name sounds familiar, it’s because Vega is no stranger to the convergence of beauty products and super hero-like technology. Back in 2013, she introduced a system comprised of metallized false eyelashes, conductive makeup and an ATmega32U4 based Clio board from Seeed Studio to turn on screens and drones with a wink. With her latest solution, called Hairware, the high-tech hair extensions can not only sense when they’re being touched but can be used as a wireless input device for smartphones as well. What’s more, they can be configured to open applications, send preset messages or broadcast a person’s location, all without the user visibly interacting with their device.

“Normally, while someone touches her own hair, unconsciously she is bringing comfort to herself and at the same time is emitting a non-verbal message decodable by an observer. However, when she touches on Hairware, she is not just making this unconscious behaviour because she will be triggering an object,” Vega writes. “Thus, we add new functionalities to hair extensions, turning them into a seamless device that recognizes auto-contact behaviors concealed to outside observers.”

The naturally-looking pieces of hair serve as a capacitive sensor that detects variations in touch. This change is detected by an Atmel based Arduino, which interprets the input and transmits it over to a smartphone via Bluetooth. To avoid accidental activation, Hairware uses machine learning algorithms to recognize a user’s intention.

Each time a user touches the top, middle or tip of the hair strand, the capacitor sensor differentiates these values. For example, a single stroke can be programmed to activate an app, a double stroke could be used to toggle a phone’s location tracking, while continuous playing of the hair can be used to send out an emergency text message.

In the near future, Vega hopes to commercialize the technology and demonstrate its potential application for personal security, particularly for women. Don’t worry guys, the Maker also has plans to extend Hairware and turn beards into active app controllers. Want to learn more? Head over to the project’s official page here, or watch it in action below.

These Arduino-based outfits flash to the beat of music

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Created by a team of Cornell students, these smart garments have the front page of Adafruit written all over them.

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Smart garments are one of the wearables that Gartner has billed as having the greatest potential for growth. A testament to the limitless possibilities of that space is a recent project by a group of undergrads from Cornell University. The students have created a set of embedded outfits with vivid, luminescent panels that can pulse to the beat of music.

(Source: Cornell Chronicle)

“This collection is inspired by the future – and present – of wearable technology being more and more integrated into fashion and daily life,” explains co-creator Eric Beaudette. “These garments depict our vision of fashion of the future, having increased function and compatibility with devices, such as smartphones.”

Surely, anyone wearing these fabricated pieces would turn some heads with its optical fiber cloth illuminated by controllable RGB LEDs and strips of electroluminescent tape. An Arduino (which we assume would be an ATmega32U4 based LilyPad) sewn into each garment enables the lights to accurately brighten to the tunes.

(Source: Cornell Chronicle)

The team noted that maintaining harmony between the materials, technologies and construction can be difficult task. “Garments with circuitry and other technologies add layers of complexity, especially since these technologies were not originally designed for use with clothing.”

Wear your heart on your sleeve with the Beatband

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This blinking wearable device combines a pulse sensor with a DIY Arduino.

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As showcased on MAKE Magazine, MakerBlock has devised a simple pulse-blinking indicator that enables a user to display their heartbeat when performing nearly any activity imaginable using a DIY Arduino microcontroller.

With the implementation of a MintDuino (ATmega328P + Arduino bootloader), MakerBlock has tasked a pulse sensor to trigger a set of green glowing LEDs. The entire unit fits within a mint tin (hence its name) and can be easily slipped into a specified sleeve for comfortable wearing.

Many would assume a neoprene sleeve would be ideal for this project, but MakerBlock recommends the NXE ActiveSleeve which is comprised of a stretchy material that allows the blinking lights to shine through. What good is an LED pulse display if onlookers can’t see your beating heart, right?

MakerBlock writes about a minor change to the MintDuino, “For this build we want to transfer it to perfboard so it’ll fit snugly in the mint tin and the armband sleeve.” Its creators go on to caution fellow Makers, “Don’t solder the green LED to the perfboard. You’ll replace this component with jumper wires connecting to your 5 red LEDs on the lid.”

Once soldered, wired and worn, this project has a multitude of uses. It can provide a visual representation of your feelings while working out, watching a movie, or even meditating. Now, go show off those emotions!

Revolar is a smart wearable device that’ll keep you safe

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A small wearable to solve a big problem.

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At one point or another, we’ve all been (or will one day be) in a situation where we do not feel safe and have limited access to loved ones. And as scary as it may sound, one in five women in America will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Designed to eradicate this statistic and to help spur a more security-conscious society, Revolar is a new wearable device that syncs with a smartphone’s emergency contacts via Bluetooth and acts as a “magic button” that sends out an SOS with a user’s exact GPS location.

The idea was first conceived by Revolar’s founder Jacqueline Ros after her sister was attacked multiple times before the age of 17. Subsequently, Ros was determined to find a solution and curb these sort of occurrences from ever happening again.

Just about the size of a quarter, Revolar can be discreetly placed just about anywhere, from a piece of jewelry, to a pocketbook or backpack, to a shirt or jacket collar. The device itself is comprised of two components: a communications module and its hard shell casing. Revolar features a drop-in system that also lets users to take the module and interchange it into a differently colored shell — currently available in white, blue and black — so that it can match with nearly any sort of attire.

How it works is easy. First, the unit is attached to an article of clothing, accessory or keychain. A user then inputs his or her emergency contacts into the Revolar mobile app. Only if and when assistance is required, the button is pressed. This sends the wearer’s exact GPS location to its respective recipients.

What’s nice, Revolar can be used by nearly everyone — kids can input the contact information of their parents or caregivers, campus police for college students, or colleagues for business travelers when abroad. Once activated, the user’s mobile phone will automatically switch phone settings to silent, if desired. As soon as a user feels safe, they can simply turn off the alert using their app PIN, and friends and family will be notified with a message that they are indeed okay.

“Our technology is built upon the most innovative Internet on Things Security Platform, which assures the integrity and confidentiality of our users data while enabling rapid development. This technology also enables secure device-to-device communications management,” the team writes.

Built around Atmel CryptoAuthentication devices, Revolar packs a whole lot of security features for such a tiny gadget. For one, users can take comfort in knowing that each wearable unit is as unique as the wearer themselves and cannot be cloned. Because of its chain of security, devices cannot be impersonated on the network either. Beyond that, data being communicated between each Revolar cannot be intercepted or manipulated by a third party.

Sound like something you or a loved one would like? Head over to Revolar’s official Kickstarter page, where the team is currently seeking $75,000. If all goes to plan, shipment is expected to begin early spring 2016.