Wearables

The One-Hour Hat

Late April is probably not the time of year to get interested in designing and making fleece hats, but that’s what has happened to me over the past day or so. The other night, I decided that the fleece hat I’ve worn for most of the winter is too tight, and resolved to make my own. Sewing is new to me, and I’m trying to build my skills with this ancient craft and learning how to use my recently acquired sewing machine. As I’m doing this and other projects, one of my goals is to develop classroom projects for my high school students. The slideshow above shows the photos documenting the process of creating one hat.

Continue Reading Chris Connors10
Blast From The Past: “SpringWalker” Running Exoskeleton

Blast From The Past: “SpringWalker” Running Exoskeleton

I am indebted to a commenter on yesterday’s skeletonics post for reminding me of G. John Dick and Eric A. Edwards’ SpringWalker spring-powered lower-body exoskeleton. Using the slightly half-baked terms I proposed yesterday, the SpringWalker is another notable example of a “passive” exoskeleton, i.e. one that amplifies the speed and range of a motion, but does not actually add power. An oldie but a goodie, the SpringWalker was patented in 1991, back when the term of a US patent was still 17 years, and is thus now out of patent. [Thanks, DanYHKim!]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan6
“Skeletonics” Exoskeleton Is Kinda Like Stilts For Your Whole Body

“Skeletonics” Exoskeleton Is Kinda Like Stilts For Your Whole Body

All the primary source material here appears to be in Japanese, in which I am sadly illiterate, but word on the street is that this is a college-level student engineering project. It’s called Skeletonics, and I want to describe the technology as a “passive exoskeleton,” because it does not have any servomechanisms and just amplifies the speed and reach of the wearer’s natural movements. That would be opposed to an “active exoskeleton,” which, you know, would be one that actually adds power to a movement. I dunno what good it may be, but it sure looks like fun. If nothing else, you could build one and sell rides in it at the county fair. [via Hack a Day]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan87
Tron Bag with EL Wire

Tron Bag with EL Wire

Tote your Thinkpad and port your Apple in style with our custom TRON-inspired laptop bag tutorial. With a little soldering and sewing skills you can have your own light up satchel, sure to impress geeky friends. So grab your sewing needle and soldering iron and follow along

This project was a collaboration between ladyada & becky stern, rock!

http://www.ladyada.net/make/tronbag/

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/12/el_wire_tron_bag.html

Continue Reading Makemagazineuser
CRAFT Video: Craft Meets Tech at MIT

CRAFT Video: Craft Meets Tech at MIT

In this week’s CRAFT Video, come with me to the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There I met with e-textiles pioneer Leah Buechley and students from her research group called “High-Low Tech,” which Leah describes as “blends” of technology with traditional crafts to make new toolkits for creativity and learning. http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/01/craft_meets_tech_at_mit.html

Continue Reading Becky Stern