Tinker, inventor, hacker spaces

(image source via New York Times)

There seems to be a trend in tinker and hacker spaces, which are popping up all over the place. Hacker collective NYC Resistor is one of the popular ones, which opened in the summer of 2007 in New York. It allows anyone who is interested in electronics to come in tinker, hack, and invent. “Resistor blew the doors off the scene here,” said Eric Moore (via NYTimes), a hacker from Bushwick who is forming his own group. “They’re the next generation of American hacking. The rest of us are just trying to catch up.” In fact, it's so popular that another hacker space has been started called Htink, which is also located in New York.

Hacker spaces are a great forum to learn about wearables and experiment with the potential interactions. Diana Eng, a designer exploring wearables and a former Project Runway contestant, is one of the 7 members of the NY Resistor collective. “My designs were too nerdy for ‘Project Runway,’ ” Ms. Eng said with a giggle. “But here they fit right in.”

More info via NYTimes, Makezine, NYResistor

Add wireless communications to LilyPad

Kate Hartman and Rob Faludi co-developed LilyPad XBee, a LilyPad Arduino Main Board addition that enables wireless communication. Now you can add even more functionality to your garments by allowing them to communicate to each other. 

According to Sparkfun, the "LilyPad is a wearable e-textile technology developed by Leah Buechley and cooperatively designed by Leah and SparkFun. Each LilyPad was creatively designed to have large connecting pads to allow them to be sewn into clothing. Various input, output, power, and sensor boards are available. They're even washable!" Like the LilyPad, the module is designed so that it can be sewn directly into fabrics and there are a variety of different modules with different specs. I can't wait to get my hands on them!

Book review: Switch Craft

For those interested in designing and developing wearables, the growing DIY culture is a great place to get your hands dirty. Alison Lewis, of Switch, published a book titled Switch Craft that includes a variety of projects that help you learn about crafting soft circuits. The projects allow you to show off, share alike, work it, and play hard. They range from simple fabric magnets that light up to plush pillows you can use to talk to your friends. Most projects use existing circuits that you hack and embed into fabrics. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Petal Shuffle This fashionable hat makes you look good while hiding away your iPod shuffle. There's not much circuitry involved since you simply sew your shuffle directly into the hat. The controls are built into the flower pedals, so you simply position the controls from your shuffle under them, which allows you to control the volume and change songs.

Pillow Talk A pillow that connects your cell phone so that you can "pillow talk" your friends to sleep. Making this looks fairly straightforward. Simply integrate headphones with a speaker input into the pillow. There is some re-wiring involved.

Lovie Circuits These are my absolute favorites! These cute little plushy companions light up when they kiss. The circuit used is a simple LED light with a battery. The wiring is sewn into the fabric to the mouth so when they touch, it completes the circuit and lights each companion up. Adorable.

Voodoodoll For the bad angel in all of us, the Voodoodoll wiggles and squirms when it's poked with a needle. The circuit is made up of a battery and a vibrating motor set. A sponge is stuffed inside the doll that is wrapped in conductive fabric. When the pin is pushed into the conductive sponge, it triggers the circuit and makes the little guy shake.

To see more of these adorable soft-circuit projects, get the book here.

Wearable musical instrument

This toy piano shirt was made for the Electronic Textile workshop that was held in Zurich this month as part of the DIY Festival Zurich. All the parts were taken from a toy piano, integrated directly into the garment, and each note is played by touching a soft button sewn into the shirt. This hackable shirt isn't available on the market, but you can get your hands on it by making it yourself using the step-by-step instructables, or by purchasing the somewhat-similar Electric drumkit shirt by ThinkGeek.

There's something charming about playing your own shirt. I particular like the non-button gestures that trigger the sounds. For example, when the wearer moves his arms back and forth, is triggers a note. These types gesture opportunities are endless in garments. I would love to see him, or someone who is using his step-by-step instructables to explore the gesture possibilities even further.

Wireless wearable workshop, Dec 14

NYCResistor just announced a new workshop that will be focusing on building wireless wearables in New York December 14th! Here's what they say about the workshop:

"Get ready to explore the delights of mutual connectivity with the soon-to-be released XBee LilyPad! This class will introduce the communication and construction techniques necessary to create wireless wearables. We'll start by learning how to communicate using XBee radios, including digital, analog, input and output modes along with an overview of other useful features. Once we've made contact, we'll translate our circuits onto fabric, learning how to make flexible, durable, and attractive connections between components using conductive textiles and threads. By the end of the class, we'll have our soft circuits conversing wirelessly and you'll be ready to create your own clothing, toy or tapestry that talks!"

Dressing in technology

Jean-Baptiste Labrune, Dana Gordon, Michel De Meere, and Dirk Van Oosterbosch hosted a workshop called Designing Hybrid Wearables at Mediamatic in Amsterdam. The workshop aims to focus on merging communication technology with the things you wear. Here's how they describe it:

"More and more objects are being connected to networks, and become carriers, collectors, and transmitters of various kinds of data. ... We're not just talking about pimping your outfit - we're investigating the electronic extrapolation of the role of clothing and fashion. And we're looking at transferring possibilities of other communication devices to clothing, where they may find a more natural home..."

The topics they explored ranged from clothes as media, social possibilities of RFID technology, tangible interfaces, conductive materials, and seamlessly integrating communication technology into garments.