How to Make Simple Shoes Into Amazing Dance Dance Revolution #WearableWednesday #Wearabletech #Arduino

I’ve seen a variety of Dance Dance Revolution style games done with tiles, LEDs and fun sounds, but this project really kicks it. Imagine you want to have a traveling form of DDR that is quick to unleash. Well, according to some designers from the Hyper Island Sweden program you can just hack some shoes with LED arrows and get stepping. The project is called Dance Dance Revoshoetion and uses Arduino to help beginner dancers to learn steps. A knob allows the tempo of the lights and music to be adjusted so learning can progress at the speed needed.

The video has its own upbeat DIY touch with the child’s piano, bubbles and funky music, which has me all smiles. It’s not clear whether the designers had time to actually make those LED arrows acknowledge the movements, changing color or providing a vibration depending on the outcome of the steps, but surely that is a possibility with the right sensors. As a future add-on, it would be fun to make this similar to the classic Hug Shirt, where the steps could be shared across the net or through Bluetooth and phone. Why not dance with a partner in another country in real time, or learn choreography using this interactive feature. There’s a lot to be excited about here and I’d love to know where this project is headed. Would you like to start prototyping your own wearable tech? Check out our book Getting Started with Adafruit FLORA. It covers everything you need to know about our easy-to-use microcontroller, FLORA, that is great for concealing in clothing or other wearables. You can stitch it, solder it and attach all sorts of sensors that will enable you to create reactive projects. What do you want to make first?

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!