Multi proyectos 0058

For decades I’ve wanted interesting, beautiful, and (sometimes) functional electronics on the most personal geographies of all, myself. When I think of “living in the future,” it’s what springs to mind: subtle LEDs, lots of polished metal. In this week’s column I’m going to share some milestones, mistakes, and projects in the world of wearable electronics. From geeky watches to wearable music players — I’ve always wanted to utilize my wrist real estate to my shoes for electronics of some kind. Many of the “wearables” I’m going to share are from my project archives, some are now “real,” and others are products that are out now. I think we’re finally entering an era where wearable electronics can look good and work well.

In the above video and gallery, you can see the remarkable construction of the originally-named Pen Nib Dress, a shiny, pointy stunning garment created by creative technologist John Nussey and Central St. Martins Womenswear student Steven Tai for his final degree show.

The two blended their creative and technical talents to create an A-line dress which uses moveable, vibrating pen nibs as an alternative to sequins or beading. [...]  The pair decided to use the tiny motors used to make mobile phones vibrate to animate the nibs — “they’re cheap and low-power”, says Nussey — and link these up in rows of nibs with a transistor, acting as a switch, at the end of each row. “This really cut the work down”, said Nussey, as the pair were working against Tai’s degree show deadline, “meaning we didn’t have 795 nibs to individually wire, but 42 rows. It can always be upgraded to have each motor working independently.”

These rows can be switched on and off by an arduino, and subsequently programmed and sequenced. The whole lot is powered by a rechargeable lithium battery, “so it doesn’t have to be plugged in”, explains Nussey — attachment to the wall not being the hottest look when heading down the catwalk.

The Open Hardware Summit (OHS) invites submissions for the second annual summit, to be held on September 15, 2011 in New York City (Venue TBA). TheOpen Hardware Summit is a venue to present, discuss, and learn about open hardware of all kinds. The summit examines open hardware and its relation to other issues, such as software, design, business, and law. We are seeking submissions for talks, breakout sessions, and demos from individuals and groups working with open hardware and related areas. Submissions are due by June 24, 2011. Notification of accepted proposals will happen by August 1st.

Since the first Open Hardware Summit in 2010, we have seen the open hardware movement continue to flourish. The Open-Source Hardware Definition was announced, the OSHW logo was selected by a popular vote, an open source oil spill cleaning robot got more than $33,000 in crowd funding, Google adopted the open hardware movement’s biggest success story,Arduino, as its platform and our very own keynote speaker, Limor Fried, wasfeatured on the front page of Wired Magazine – to name a few. Needless to say, open hardware is getting BIG.

This circuit is a simple electric field detector. It can can detect very faint electric fields present around powered electric lines. [...]

The brains of the bike are housed in an Arduino circuit board, which monitors data including the amount of energy used and the temperatures of each motor and battery. A screen on the dashboard continuously displays readings, allowing the rider to adjust the speed to conserve energy if needed. As a backup, the team made the system wireless, streaming data from the bike to their laptops — a modification the team’s rider, veteran Isle of Man racer and resident Allan Brew, appreciated.

achine that adds drops of water onto a special textured surface. Each drop forms into an almost perfect sphere through the surface tension of the water and the omniphopic Material. The electronically controlled pipette wanders through a square grid of 21 x 21 drops to form a micro-matrix and returns to the beginning. After approximately 300 minutes, and when thewater drops have evaporated, the same process starts again.

The Open Hardware Summit (OHS) invites submissions for the second annual summit, to be held on September 15, 2011 in New York City. The Open Hardware Summit is a venue to present, discuss, and learn about open hardware of all kinds. The summit examines open hardware and its relation to other issues, such as software, design, business, and law. We are seeking submissions for talks, breakout sessions, and demos from individuals and groups working with open hardware and related areas. Submissions are due by June 24, 2011. Notification of accepted proposals will happen by August 1st.