It's that time of year again and I've gathered together the "must see" interactive textile events for this weekend's Maker Faire. I'll be running around on Saturday so if you see me please say "hello." I'll be wearing something that glows ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Proximity Sensing with Fabrics

Location: Expo Hall 204

Impressed by the proximity and touch sensing of the iPhone? Build your own touch and proximity sensors by sewing, taping, or weaving conductive fabrics and threads.

Maker: Adrian Freed

Hacking Toys and Clothes

Location: Saturday 5:00 PM - 5:45 PM Make Demos

Maker: Becky Stern

MAKE and CRAFT online editor Becky Stern hacks toys and clothes to make art, new toys, musical instruments, and wearable electronics. She'll show you how she made her TV-B-Gone Hoodie, the sweatshirt that turns off TVs, and how to hack the circuit board of an electronic toy to change its sound. Don't miss Becky's Twitchie Scorpion toy and Human Hair Blythe doll.



LED Mania

Location: Stage B , Sunday 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Maker: Tom Igoe

Making LED displays is fun. There are a a few tools that get used all the time, from row-column scanning to LED driver chips to multplexers and shift registers. I'll show a couple examples, and open the floor to Q&A as to how to approach multiple-output display projects. I'll also show some of the LED displays I have been playing around with myself.


Tilt/Acceleration Sensors for Robotics

Maker: Adrian Freed

How to choose a Tilt/Acceleration Sensor for Robotics and Gesture Controllers: This demonstration covers a range of tilt and acceleration sensor boards and modules you can incorporate into your robots, music and gesture controllers. The pros and cons of each are discussed and put in the context of real applications. The main focus is on MEMS sensors but we will also cover a wearable DIY tilt sensor based on fabric being developed by Hannah-Perner Wilson.

littleBits

Location: Expo Hall 126 Stage B , Sunday 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Ayah, the author of littleBits will talk about how to make electronics a traditional material, like paper, plastic, cardboard, nuts and bolts. Make something, light it, push it, turn it, twist it, bend it, buzz it, blink it, shake it!

littleBits is an opensource library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together.