PROJECT: COLOR CHANGING ACCESSORIES VIA TWITTER

MATERIALS

NeoPixels x 9

Wire

Soldering kit

Conductive thread

Twitter

Desired Clothing (in this case a jacket)

INSTRUCTIONS

My idea behind this project was the connection that social media has to fashion and trends. I wanted to think of a way to make dig deeper with this connection and try to think of a way that social media can do more than just allow one to follow trends and observe fashion second-hand. The project ended up being some additive light accessories that changed colors controlled through twitter. Using a specific hashtag, such as  #ART150COLORCHANGE, then specifying a color, the lights that are attached to the clothing will match that color. With social media being so quick to spread ideas and change just as fast, I thought it would be interesting to be able to follow these trends on the go with a simple tweet. The lights can be added to old clothes to add some character or any other pieces of clothing. 

The first step was to create a patter for the neopixels. I chose to separate a few of them from the original strip to add some variety in the design. I cut off three of the neopixels and spaced them out evenly. I connected them with cables that I had carefully soldered to the neopixels. 

After the neopixels were connected, I then attached them to a jacket that I felt was losing its touch. I had to keep the bottom of the strip of neopixels towards the bottom of the jacket sleeve so I could connect the wires to the arduino.

For the Code, I had to make a connection with the serial monitor on the arduino from processing. I created some variables in processing that were saved if certain key words were found with the hashtag #ART150COLORCHANGE. These variables were than accessible through arduino where I used these color keywords to set the colors of the neopixels.