Arduino Wearables-2010kaiser.pdf

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Contents at a Glance

 About the Author................................................................................................... xv

 About the Technical Reviewer ............................................................................. xvi

 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. xvii

 Preface............................................................................................................... xviii

 Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................... 1

 Chapter 2: Software .............................................................................................. 15

 Chapter 3: Hardware............................................................................................. 31

 Chapter 4: Smart Materials and Tools .................................................................. 53

 Chapter 5: LED Bracelets ...................................................................................... 73

 Chapter 6: Solar-Powered Glow-in-the-Dark Bag................................................. 95

 Chapter 7: Piano Tie............................................................................................ 115

 Chapter 8: Bag Alarm ......................................................................................... 141

 Chapter 9: Beatbox Hoodie ................................................................................. 165

 Chapter 10: Sunshine Umbrella .......................................................................... 187

 Chapter 11: Beat Dress ....................................................................................... 211

 Chapter 12: Shape Memory Flower .................................................................... 233

 Chapter 13: EL Wire Dress .................................................................................. 251

 Chapter 14: Making Things Tiny ......................................................................... 279

 Index ................................................................................................................... 309

C H A P T E R 1

Introduction

At a young age, I lived very close to my grandmothers and I used to visit them often. Both of my

grandmothers were very skilled in textile handcrafts and, along with my mother, were firm believers that

sewing is one of those basic skills that everyone should know. One grandmother was amazing at

crocheting and needlepoint, and the other one was very skilled in weaving and loved quilting. I’ve been

very interested in everything practical and artistic since I was young, and my grandmothers were patient

enough to teach me their skills.

I would never have thought that these faded skills would come in handy years later as I became

more interested in other artistic areas. It was not long after I first saw an Arduino board that I realized

that there was such a thing as combining electronics and textiles. Not long afterward, I got the chance to

teach others about this amazing piece of technology in a course that focused on fashion and technology.

The product of all my time spent working with and teaching with the Arduino is what you now hold

in your hands. This book is a practical introduction to the wonderful world of wearables; it mixes theory

with a hands-on approach.

Since you made it as far as picking up this book, you are already half way there. The biggest

challenge you face starting out with electronics and programming is the fear that these things are hard to

learn. If you still have your doubts, dispel them. Even if part of the learning process is tricky, I can’t think

of a more fun way to learn electronics and programming than through making your own wearable

project.

Rather than just explaining each step of the construction process, the projects in this book include a

lot of theory behind how they actually work—so that you can build a deeper understanding of wearables.

The goal is to build your skills and inspire you to develop upon the projects in this book to create new

projects beyond it. Maybe in the future you will show me how it is done.

Wearables

Fashion and technology, wearable computing, techno fashion, embedded technology, e-textiles,

wearable tech, or just plain “wearables.” The list of names is long, but they all share the same principle of

combining technology with textiles. This book serves as a practical introduction on how you can start

experimenting within these areas.

As all of the names suggest, this book is about making technology wearable. The idea might sound

new to some, but people have been wearing technology for centuries if you think about it. Eyeglasses are

technology worn on your face to enhance sight; the first pair were made in Italy in the eleventh century.

Watches are devices that are constructed to calculate time; we have been wearing them since the

sixteenth century, but the idea for pocket watches has been recorded much earlier.

Today, tech is all around us. We carry computers in bags custom-made to fit them. We wear the

technology to operate MP3 players on our heads as a fashion statement. I can’t remember the last time I

met someone without a mobile phone. And phones are not just phones any more; they are a

CHAPTER 1  INTRODUCTION

combination of technologies—computers, phones, cameras, and GPS technology—that fit in our

pockets. Portable computers are all around us.

It was not until 1961 that we started to talk about wearable computers. Edward Thorp and Claude

Shannon developed what is considered to be the first wearable computer. Shannon is probably more

known for his contributions to information theory and Thorp as the inventor of card counting in

blackjack. It was Thorp’s area of interest that inspired them to create the first wearable computer. Thorp

and Shannon were mathematicians that developed a system for calculating the speed of a roulette ball to

predict where it would stop. Their system included a shoe with hidden microswitches used to calculate

speed, and this information was sent to a small computer that transferred it into a musical signal sent

over radio to a miniature speaker hidden in a collaborator’s ear.

Thorp and Shannon’s system was not revealed until 1966 in one of Thorp’s books, in which he

admitted that the system was tested in Las Vegas. He also said that the system never worked beyond one

trial run due to problems with the microphone, but popular theories and speculations indicate

otherwise, due to the fact that it took the men five years to reveal the project.

Thorp and Shannon may have created the first wearable computer, but today wearable computing

is synonymous with one man in particular: Steve Mann. In 1981, Mann began to develop a wearable

computer; he has been wearing it since. The story I have been told is that it all started one day when

Mann was out walking. As a photographer, he often found that when he saw a good moment to take a

photo, the moment had passed by the time he had his camera ready. So his first wearable computer was

a backpack-mounted system that constantly recorded everything he could see.

Since then, Mann has continued developing his system and today his entire computer fits into a pair

of sunglasses with the full functionality of a normal computer.

Although a lot of wearable computers are based on the notion of extending the functions of the

human body, technology has always been a subject for fashion. Even in the early stages of the

development of eyeglasses and pocket watches, these objects became subject for personal expression

and for projecting status.

Mann’s wearable system also became a victim of fashion. While living his life wearing his computer,

he often felt alienated due to the fact that his physical presence confused people. He felt limited by this.

His system was meant to enhance his life, but to be constantly treated differently because of the way he

looked interfered with his creative vision. So he began to develop his system in a more seamless way by

trying to hide much of the technology and make his system look more like an object a person would

normally wear. You might say that he was forced to become fashionable.

Yet it is not until the past ten years that technology has rooted itself within the field of fashion. Likely

the best known reason for this is Hussein Chalayan’s 2007 spring/summer collection, which presented

an historical interpretation of engineering with dresses that seamlessly combined technology and

textiles in a way that made them look magical. The dresses bended, twisted, and moved all by

themselves, which gave the illusion that the garments had a life of their own. There were similar

creations prior to Chalayan’s show, but none really illustrated the endless possibility of combining

computers, electronics, and textiles.

In 2005, something happened that I think had a direct impact on the recent increase in interest in

wearable computing. That thing also happens to be the basis for this book.

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