Flexible LED eTextile Ribbon Array

See instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/flexible-LED-eTextile-ribbon-array/

This ribbon lighting was used in the bodice of this hauntingly beautiful dress by Lynne Bruningauthor's website.

LilyPad Interactive Passion Sensing Scarf

www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Lilypad-Interactive-Pass...

The LilyPad Interactive Passion Sensing Scarf works like so:

Scarf number one being worn by someone walking alone will light up with the color Blue for Lonely. When the wearer of scarf number two joins up with number one, the two scarves will sense each other and then light up Red for Love.

Future plans for capacitance touch: which will allow the colors to Pulsate for Passion if one wearer touches the other wearers scarf.

Visiting MIT's Media Lab

Becky Stern: Today I'm visiting the Media Lab's High-Low Tech (HLT) group, headed up by Leah Buechley. I'm hanging out with her and her grad students Hannah Perner-Wilson, David Mellis, and Emily Lovell, as well as e-textile education maven Kate Hartman. More later this week including video, but for now check out mine and Kate's photos! Yesterday we met with all sorts of education and e-textile superstars and had a knitted sensor workshop. Pictured above is Hannah showing Kate how to finish her machine-knitted conductive yarn stretch sensor.

Tools and Project Ideas for E-Textiles with Kids

Diane Glosson writes, "I've been looking at these Alex Knot-A-Quilt kits for kids, see http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Toys-383WN-Knot-A-Quilt/dp/B000F3V2R2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1261849331&sr=8-1 The kits include 48 -9" fringed squares, meaning we could make 24 fringed pillows (with a simple circuit sewn on one side of the pillow from each kit, so it would come close to $1 in fabric per child). This just seemed easy for the little ones that might not have enough sewing experience to stitch an entire pillow."

"I also just came across the GO! fabric cutter, that you can buy dies for: http://www.accuquilt.com/InventoryD.asp?loc=A1&item_no=55100&category=17A55945-EE43-41FE-BCF4-BE8917F5AE01 (cutter runs $349) Such as the rag die (for fringed pillows) http://www.accuquilt.com/inventory.asp?CatId={BDC07F45-5735-4CD2-AF63-E8810DCB684F} Or appliqua shapes http://www.accuquilt.com/inventory.asp?CatId={F9FB26AC-5853-4132-AF76-DA5FB660B227} etc."

The Democratization of Ubiquitous Computing

Watch it on Academic Earth

April 25, 2008 lecture by Leah Buechley for the Stanford University Human Computer Interaction Seminar (CS547). Computational textile researchers weave, solder and sew electronics into cloth to build soft, flexible and wearable computers. Computational textiles or "e-textiles" is a young discipline, and developments in the field have so far been relegated almost exclusively to research labs in industry and academia. Lisa Buechley presents advancements that make the designing and building of e- textiles accessible to new audiences, describing developments in engineering, design and applications that are helping to democratize creative ubiquitous computing.

Aniomagic Project Ideas

Check out some neat project ideas ranging from ambient temperature sensing curtains to diffusing your LEDS:

http://www.aniomagic.com/?id=9

Soft Circuits -- CO2 Detecting Dress

Read more at:

http://softcircuit.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/image-11.png

Check out Pong Prom from Ed Keeble

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/12/pong-prom-turns.php

You're already familiar with the classic game, Pong: there are two paddles, one on each side of the screen, and you try to keep the ball that bounces between them from flying off your side. Well, a chap by the name of Ed Keeble has decide to update the revered title, but with a sexy twist. Instead of using a joystick, two players control their paddles by slow dancing with one another.

An accelerometer built into each suit keeps track of each player's swaying and guides each paddle back and forth accordingly, as Keeble describes it: "The project uses the Lilypad Arduino platform to control game play, run the display, and communicate between devices. Patches of conductive fabric on the shoulders, hips, and cuffs of the shirts are used to create a serial connection between the Arduinos. An accelerometer attached at the back of the neck allows each player to control their game paddle by rocking their partner back and forth."

Lighted Wedding Dress by Alison Lewis

Check out this lovely creation at http://www.iheartswitch.com/

NYTimes Article on the Future of Craft

December 3, 2009
For Crafters, the Gift of Automation
By PETER WAYNER

THE easy replication enabled by the digital era is coming to the tactile world, and one of its first stops is the two-dimensional world of paper, felt and vinyl. Computer-driven styluses can cut, burnish and emboss paper and other materials using instructions purchased or swapped on the Web.

Such automation may seem at odds with the concept of handmade, but there’s no doubt the tools allow for bigger and more elaborate projects that might cause cramps if cut manually.

Jennifer McGuire, an artist in Cincinnati, plans to make 150 Christmas cards using her Silhouette digital cutter to make hundreds of snowflakes in slightly different sizes. Then, she said, she will glue them together in layers, place a family picture in the center and add a loop so the snowflake can hang on a tree.

“In the past, I’ve cut some myself by hand,” she said, “and that takes way too long.”

The cutting machines look and manipulate paper like printers for personal computers but have blades instead of ink cartridges. They started appearing more than four years ago, and the earliest versions used patterns from cartridges and digital memory cards. This year, the manufacturers have enabled customers to buy patterns from professional artists and are making it easier for crafters to swap patterns through online networks.

Besides making cards, crafters use the machines for scrapbook projects, home décor, lettering and artwork. Here are three machines often mentioned by crafters:

PAZZLES

Jeremy Vander Woude, the general manager of Pazzles, based in Boise, Idaho, said his company was finishing tests of the Pazzles Craft Room, a Web site that borrows ideas from members of social networks and adapts them to support Pazzles machines. Customers will be able look at the creations of other crafters and download plans to replicate them. Some features will be free, and some sections, like the collection of professionally designed projects, will be available for a fee.

With the Pazzles cutter, “you can use any fonts, you can design your own images, you can take public domain clip art, turn it into line drawings that can then be cut,” Mr. Vander Woude said. “If they’re having a bit of trouble making their project work just right, they can get on the Internet and chat with one of our designers.”

The machines cost $600 for the basic model and up to $3,000 for professional models intended for heavy use.

CRICUT

The Cricut line from Provo Craft in Spanish Fork, Utah, includes machines that can be used with or without a home computer. Jon Lee, brand director for the line, said customers typically liked the simplicity of purchasing and using a collection of cutting patterns on a cartridge without having to understand software or computers.

In the past, Provo Craft sold patterns on cartridges that might include several hundred designs with a similar theme; it hopes to expand its online offerings and triple the number of cartridges available next year. Designs include a variety of original and licensed outlines, including popular cartoon characters like Batman and SpongeBob SquarePants.

The basic machine costs $149, and the Cricut Expression, which can handle 12- by 24-inch paper, is $349. The company also makes a hand-held tool called the Gypsy that is used to choose fonts and shapes to be cut. It lists at $300.

Mr. Lee said Cricut’s Internet-based tools might offer individual patterns to customers for a particular project, but he declined to provide details. One small company, Craft Edge, sells a $90 software package that has fonts and outlines that can be cut on the Cricut machine.

SILHOUETTE

This line of digital cutters uses the iTunes model to sell individual patterns on the Internet, said Kirk Pead, the vice president for sales and marketing at Silhouette America in Lindon, Utah, adding, “We started getting third-party artists to give us images, and they’ll be paid royalties based on how many times they’re downloaded.”

Once owned by QuicKutz, a company that makes tools for crafters, Silhouette has been spun off on its own. The company recently announced that it was licensing patterns from Hero Arts, a company that makes rubber stamps, and Mr. Pead promised more to come.

THE Silhouette SD costs $300 and includes a $25 gift card for patterns from its online store. Pattern prices usually start at $1.99, with an unlimited subscription for $30 a month.

Erin Lincoln, a member of the Silhouette Design Team in Boonsboro, Md., said she had used the machine to cut patterns for etching glass, create spider cutouts for Halloween and make hundreds of stars to decorate her son’s wagon for Memorial Day.

“I like the fact that it looks manufactured,” she explained. “I don’t like the stuff looking hokey-crafty. I want the stuff to look as professional as possible. I don’t want uneven lines or edges.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/technology/personaltech/03CRAFTS.html