Imagine a future where lights are not fixed to the ceiling but follow us wherever we are. In this colorful world we enjoy lighting, which is designed to go along with the moment, the activity, our feelings, and our outfit. Halo is a wearable lighting device created to explore this scenario. Different than architectural lighting this personal lighting device aims to illuminate and present its user. Halo changes the wearer’s appearance with the ease of a button click, similar to adding a filter to a photograph. It can also changed one’s view, brightening up a rainy day, or coloring a gray landscape. Halo can react to activities and adapt based on context. It is a responsive window between the wearer and her surroundings.
A ring of LEDs frames the wearer’s head and illuminates her face and shoulders. A mobile app controls Halo over Bluetooth. The hardware is made of light weight aluminum and can be shaped to the user’s body. It is comfortable to wear and can be adjusted to different angles, either resting in front of the face or around the head.
Halo is pre-programmed with a range of lighting compositions. Referring to theater and photography, we designed patterns to make the user appear happy, sad, angry, anxious, evil, passionate, etc. Using the mobile app the user can choose from a list of presets. She can also design her own patterns. Instead of defining brightness and color for each LED, using our software she can place virtual light sources into the space around the halo. This way she can easily define a key light or a fill light. The corresponding LED setting is then generated automatically. As you can see in the video even if the user does not move, facial expression seems to change with the transition of the lights.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 9.2.1, What is DMA, PyConUS 2025 and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!