Wearable Electronics in The New York Times

Some nice weekend coverage for our kissing cousins over at Adafruit, who are banking hard on the future of DIY wearable electronics with their new FLORA wearable Arduino-compatible microcontroller. The article, which published online Saturday and in print Sunday, includes a tasty quote from a familiar face:

Becky Stern, who leads the company’s wearable electronics group, will develop projects and kits based on it for crafters. “Pop stars have costumes made by ateliers at huge cost,” Ms. Stern says, adding that her company’s products would “let you make these electronic wearables at home for a fraction of that.”

Though I can’t wait to see what Becky comes up with, I’m still a bit on the fence about wearables. Tons of cool stuff happening in that space, for sure, but I haven’t seen anything that would count, for me, as a “killer app” yet. Or did I miss it? Let me know, below.

Which Way to the Ball? I’ll Ask My Gown

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7 Responses to Wearable Electronics in The New York Times

Pete Prodoehl on February 27th, 2012 at 6:31 am said:

I haven’t see a “killer app” that fits my own tastes either, but makers are of a wide variety, and things that don’t appeal to me may be the killer app in another person’s eye.

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Phillip Torrone on February 27th, 2012 at 6:48 am said:

i always look at this way… how would you explain what the killer app is for arduino? you really can’t – however, it’s pretty clear that its ability to “glue” your ideas to electronics is more possible with arduino. this is what i think we’ll see with wearables. we’ll also see makers able to create things like this:

http://vimeo.com/27194426

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Pete Prodoehl on February 27th, 2012 at 7:53 am said:

Well said Phil, the “killer app” is the world of possibilities it opens up.

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John on February 27th, 2012 at 7:55 am said:

I am really surprised the IR Headband hasnt taken off. This is from 2008 – http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/02/cctv-busting-in/

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- Paul Spinrad on February 28th, 2012 at 3:21 pm said:
  
  I’m pretty sure the IR headband will only work in the dark or relative dark — normal IR LEDs, even a lot of them, can’t put out enough IR to overwhelm camera sensors under normal lighting or daylight. Link is an art project, I think it’s a “concept.”
  
  If / when something like this does work, I agree it would be “killer.”
  
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james britt on February 28th, 2012 at 10:56 pm said:

Search on Lilypad Arduino to see what people have been doing with similar tech the last few years. One question is if Flora is different enough from Lilypad to generate increased participation in the field.

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Tracy Bennette on July 29th, 2012 at 11:21 pm said:

What makes Flora unique from the others?

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