Pokémon Go patches with EL panels using team logos and pokéball logos built into costumes and accessories. Showcase for Pokémon Go Patches with EL Panels tutorial for SparkFun Electronics.

This prom dress is augmented with LilyPad Pixel Boards embedded in the lining to blend seamlessly with its sequin details. A light sensor hidden in the shoulder corsage takes ambient light readings connected to a LilyPad Arduino SimpleSnap triggers the LEDs to twinkle when the light falls below a set threshold.

Photo courtesy of Juan Pena for SparkFun Electronics

Model: Alina George

Glowing headband created with Neopixel Rings, a LilyTiny microcontroller with custom program, and painted foam wings.

Plastic molded detachable light-up spine made with Flora Neopixels connected to a Tiny Circuits TinyLily Mini Processor.

Custom light-up wings controlled by a LilyPad Arduino board. LilyPad LEDs sewn into a base layer and covered with ironed cellophane. Painted wooden spines provide structure and support.

Model: Alison Duda

Augmented costumes that convey the cattiness and manipulation in clique culture of tween girls (ages 12-14). Using the stereotype of the popular clique, these garments come equipped with voodoo dolls through which the girls take out their aggression on each other. 

LED flower switches on the dolls can change the color of a coordinating flower on the girls’ shirts to indicate status of ‘in’ or ‘out’ of the group through green or red. A panel on one doll controls the display of the word ‘Loser’ (printed in thermochromic ink) when triggered, providing an embarrassing branding on the intended target.

Models: Grady O’Neil and Michela Mastellone-Schottma

Pair of dancing costumes that highlight the awkward, intimate-yet-exposed nature of the slow dance. Performers wearing the costumes can interact with each other or audience members.By placing hands on the hand prints (made from conductive fabric), the participant’s body completes a circuit, triggering effects on the garment. As the couple dances, heart shaped indicators on the back of the costumes illuminate to highlight time spent together. The female costume includes an embedded speaker in a corsage, playing a song when triggered. The male costume’s tie lights up and blinks. For stumbling dance steps, a light in the female’s shoes is triggered when her toes are stepped upon.

Materials:
LEDs, Conductive Fabric/Thread, Arduino, MP3 player, Speaker.

Models: Genevieve Belleveau and Alex Ward

An exploration of soft circuit techniques combined with the joy of hula hoops to create interactive, fun, and quirky performative hooping experiences.

The blue jacket is a wearable musical instrument using a LilyPad Arduino and conductive fabric patches along the sleeves, on special gloves, and various contact points. When two patches are connected by conductive fabric along the inside of a hula hoop, a circuit is completed and triggers the sound associated with that patch.

The black jacket uses embedded LEDs triggered by the same conductive patch method.

Read more about the process of making these projects on the Soft Circuit Saturdays blog.

As seen at Maker Faire San Mateo 2012.

Featured in Wired magazine's 10 Insanely Cool Things We Saw at Maker Faire.

Bow tie with SparkFun's MicroView built in. Touching both conductive patches on the edges of the bow tie completes the circuit and triggers an animated heart on the microview to blink. See it in action on SparkFun Live's Prom episode. 

Novelty heels with custom infinity mirrors installed. I found these heart-shaped heels and used a laser cutter to precisely cut mirrored acrylic to size for the mirrors. The electronics include a Qduino Mini microcontroller programmed with Arduino and 5mm addressable LED strips.

The black wedges use six custom modules that are installed into the heart cutouts. The white wedges have one large infinity mirror installed in each shoe.

Read about how I built the project on the SparkFun - Fashion Hacking: Infinity Mirror Heart Heels

Automatic light up backpack prop replica from the Netflix show Altered Carbon.

Custom painted and finished backpack with addressable LED strips controlled by a reed switch connected to a SparkFun Pro Micro. When the backpack is unzipped, a magnet along the zipper moves away from the reed switch and breaks the connection, triggering the LEDs to turn on.

Make your own backpack by following along with my Instructable.

I augmented a pair of 3rd eye sunglasses with an infinity mirror for my Espeon cosplay for Dragon Con 2018. Behind the top lens is an addressable LED strip sandwiched between a one-way mirror and standard mirror housed in a 3D printed ring. At the center is a rhinestone at the center for extra sparkle (and to mimic Espeon's gem). The controller is a Gemma M0 from Adafruit housed in a custom 3D printed enclosure clipped into the wig, the wiring is hidden along the edge of the frames and painted to match the gold finish. The effect is triggered by capacitive touch with a small piece of copper tape at the side of the frames as a contact point. I also included a switch to toggle between 'always on' and 'touch' modes.

Meet Nova, my first companion bot! She is a moving and light up fairy dragon that sits on my shoulder.

Unlike other companion bots out there, she is soft and cuddly and has minimal 3D components. This is partially for aesthetic reasons and partially because during her build process I only had access to a borrowed printer for a few weeks.

She was created to rest on my shoulder like a fur stole and has some randomized movements in her wings and head that give her lifelike resting movements. When you touch the charm on her forehead her wings change color and flap faster. Her movements are part butterfly and part bird, making her a curious and cuddly companion! I'm hoping to connect her with my color changing fairy costume so she can do some color changing in response to the magic wand that controls that costume as well.

I participated in a panel on building companion bots as part of the 2020 Virtual Maker Faire. Check out a recording of the session here.

I will be publishing technical details on the project on my Hackaday project page.