Wearable LED display

Posted Oct 5th 2005 9:30AM by Eliot Phillips
Filed under: misc hacks

Following these instructions you can add an LED matrix to almost any piece of clothing. The whole display can be controlled using one output for each vertical and horizontal thread. The first step is to solder crimping beads onto each surface mount LED you will be using. Next sew a grid of conductive thread into your garment keeping the vertical and horizontal threads on opposite sides of the fabric. Each of these threads is terminated at a sewn on microcontroller socket. The LEDs are sewn on at each thread junction. She doesn't have any code posted yet unfortunately, but there is an example movie of Conway's Game of Life.

[thanks lobo]

Reader Comments

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1. Very nice! I can just imagine in a few years this will be a new advertising method. Worn by bike couriers, joggers, service people... Could be a huge potential market! The resolution would have to be better but this is a great proof of concept for the conductive thread. Good luck in the future with this idea.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Alan

2. thanks for the comments! would love to hear from anyone who used my instructions to make something similar. i agree that the bracelet is more interesting, but it was harder to make, and therefore not as good a candidate for a diy posting. i'll try to post my code by the end of the week.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by leah buechley

3. The Brit techno-fashion store Cyberdog has some more advanced shirts that go so far as to have the Martrix code scroll on electroluminescent displays. Unfortunately, the shirts tend to go for around $80~$120. www.cyberdog.net, and look for "light tees"

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by radioeyes

4. Woohoo! Parrtayy! Would be cooler if you could send SMS messages and have it display on people's clothing.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by geoff kim

5. Well I'm glad that the NSF's money is going somewhere useful... (see bottom of linked page). Also.. Is it me.. or is that poor girl somewhat.. unlucky in the beatuy department... That stare on the videos.. that's freaking creepy.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by cyberfunk

6. *ot* weblogs inc. (parent company of hack-a-day) sold to aol! say it ain't so. http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=mergersNews&storyID=2005-10-06T034342Z_01_N05108393_RTRIDST_0_TECH-WEBLOGS-AOL.XML

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by billytheimpaler

7. What would be really cool is if someone could sew a small speaker somewhere under the garment and have some realtime LED Visualisations (even if its just an equaliser).....

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Wireframe

8. Very nice! I can just imagine in a few years this will be a new advertising method. Worn by bike couriers, joggers, service people... Could be a huge potential market! The resolution would have to be better but this is a great proof of concept for the conductive thread. Good luck in the future with this idea.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Alan

9. I had this idea a couple of years ago, except I wanted to use a white shirt and use surface mount LEDs behind the fabric so it would just glow through. I also wanted to make a couple of soft & small keypads that I could keep in my pockets that hooked up to the shirt. The purpose? T-shirt PONG. The problem? College kid with no money. Oh well, I'm pretty sure it's been thought of long before I thought of it and long before she did it.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Duncan Domingue

10. Hey Marnagulus you mean something like this https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bkpeters/www/LEDBed/index.html Not sure if the guy is still selling the kits or not but I bought one I love it, would post pics but alas no camera. This link was on /. about this time last year.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Mojo Jojo

11. Thanks mojo, that was exactly what I was looking for.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by marnargulus

12. Josh that is a great ideawith the motorcycle turn signals. You could even turn the entire back of the jacket into a giant brake light display.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Bob

13. hey marnargulus, that sounds like a great idea- be sure to keep us informed. you should mount them along the bottom of the walls so that the light goes up all pretty. maybe alternate red green blue and be able to adjust brightness so you could make more colors... that would be so cool.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by joelanders

14. I think the bracelet that she made is a cooler looking aplication of the same principals though i can see a motorcycle jacket with built in turnsignals on the sholders being useful

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Josh

15. Jesus gyus this is really cool - i am making similary project here i denmark and this is really a nice project. Like the bracelet even more. The thing about taking electronic devices out of content is really great more of that stuff.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Mads

16. please make sure to remove the garment from the wearer before performing any soldering to prevent burning. please make sure to get permission to remove garment before doing so to prevent slapping.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by carpespasm

17. I'm trying to add LED's to my room for lighting, any suggestions?

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by marnargulus

18. Nice video!

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by unangst

19. I thought of a project like this for a wizard halloween costume (Stars on a robe). Maxim makes a chip which can control 20 LED's independantly, 16 of these chips can be hooked up to a single I2C interface, giving 320 LED's all individually controllable with 16 brightness levels.

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by posicat

20. geez, c'mon guys, I think this is very nice! ... I'd say, let's all make such a tanktop for our girlfr... euhm, never mind... :-)

Posted at 3:08PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by markie

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