Hard curves, soft electronics - code, tech & textiles

Hard curves, soft electronics - code, tech & textiles
Rain Ashford | http://rainycatz.wordpress

Hello!dorkbot, fUnix, Genderchangers, University of Openness, XCOM, NOTcom…
Mashed, BBC Backstage, barcamps, hackdays, Maker Faire, Women in Tech, Hackspaces, OSHUG, opentech…

My first Arduino & project!..was this ‘Digital’ Arduino, a gift in April 2008 and I was rather amused, a bit bemused, but a lot inspired with a simple sketch I had tentatively running an LED sequence on a solderless breadboard.

..it did kick-off my interest in tinkering so I was very excited to attend Makers & Hackers, in February 2009, a one-day hack-a-thon where I first saw a sewing machine, soldering iron & Arduino side-by-side.

I went from my first Arduino to having some fun with mbed…

..but it’s wearable technology and e-textiles that really floats my boat!

..and I came across LilyPad Arduino which sounded fantastic!

LilyPad Arduino was what I was looking for – with it I could intersect many things I enjoy – art, coding, technology, gadgetry, fab things to wear and I could just invent things, mad things that pitch bent music when you shook them!
Twinkle Starduino 2009

What is it? The LilyPad Arduino is a microcontroller & suite of modules designed for wearables & e-textiles that can be sewn directly to fabric with conductive thread. It was designed and developed by Leah Buechley of MIT & Sparkfun Electronics.

The LilyPad!Pin 1 - TX/D1Pins 2,3,4 - D2, D3, D4Pin 5 - GND or "-" (ground)Pin 6 - VCC or "+" (power)Pins 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 - D5 through to D13Pins 16,17,18,19,20,21 - A0 through to A5 (analog pins)

The Arduino IDE comes with access to tons of sketch libraries which are all open source and easily downloadable into your editor to use as they are, or customise to your specific needs and great for people just starting out with programming.

For a glimpse of what you can do with LilyPad Arduino & e-textiles I’d like to show you some examples of wearable, interactive & sound artworks!I had some rather grand ideas for someone who knew little about electronics, so I gave myself a huge learning curve…

Twinkle Tartiflette: words, image and sound into an interactive experience, brought to life by touching the words with a stylus

Twinkle Tartiflette: a bit of a bonkers first foray into the world of wearable tech!

I <3 0X0: an interactive artwork, game, musical fancy and experiment in conductive Velcro

This is how I learnt about diodes!
I wanted to create something interactive, as I could find no other documentation for conductive Velcro, some sort of plaything seemed an interesting idea and after some pondering I decided on a 3 x 3 grid system

‘Yr In Mah Face’: temperature /mood / hassle sensing t-shirt

Uses Celsius temperature data from a sensor, averages it, then visualise the results via LEDs.
I'm very interested in how sensing tech such as temperature sensors can be used for medical and sporting use – such as monitoring health remotely.

LilyPad Arduino
Fabulousness
Could be improved!
It’s open source – you can find the Eagle files online
Good no of digital & analogue I/O
Great vector for encouraging girls / craftspeople to experience electronics
It’s round (dismisses the idea that electronics are sharp grey and cold)
Enthusiastic & helpful community
It’s expensive
More modules please
Different sizes
Different chips
An industrial version with possibility of using different voltages
More competition, to increase innovation

Many thanks!
@Rainycat
http://rainycatz.wordpress.com
http://www.electromew.co.uk
Rain Ashford 2011

Hard curves, soft electronics - code, tech & textiles

by Rain Ashford

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