My Top 5 of Wearable Tech for 2017 #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #DIY #Arduino #art #tech

It’s that time of year when I take a hard look at the projects that have surprised, humored and impressed me. Keep in mind that I try to keep this list for designers/makers that are not (yet) famous. Oh yes, and I have to warn you that there was a tie this year for 5th place. So, let’s start there.

#5 Flutter

These beautiful wings make me want to reach out because of their texture and hand-painted beauty. Not only do they resemble the wings of dragonflies, but they also are a welcome change to the typical fairy wings. Created by students at the School of Design, Victoria University of Wellington, the piece incorporates movement and light.

Tied for 5th place is the Applause Collar by Zoey Mahony. Triggered by the sound of handclaps, classy white LEDs come alive under a layer of macraméd cords feeding into the desire for attention (and the loop it creates as the audience receives a light show). The interwoven lines of the piece had me before I even considered the tech!

#4 Social Escape Dress

Feeling anxious and nervous? The Social Escape Dress makes your situation visible, and perhaps even playful according to the artist Kathleen McDermott. The dress uses a Galvanic Skin Response sensor to trigger 9 mini fog machines for stimulating attire.

#3 WiFi Cactus

WiFi Cactus at DefCon

There is humor and security in Mike Spicer’s WiFi Cactus. This ginormous wearable features “50 WiFi radios to detect passive monitoring of the devices near it.” In other words, this is what you want to follow at a hacker convention. This type of device is also nicknamed a pineapple, and you can see Mike has cleverly placed one at the pinnacle. This was certainly my most surprising post of the year.

#2 Akulva Tauren Frost Death Knight

This costume is adorably fierce thanks to Arduinos controlling the eyes and speech. When the wearer speaks into a mic, the mouth of the costume is able to match the movement and deepen the voice thanks to an Adafruit Wave Shield. This amazing build by Jason Caulfield has already won awards and I suspect there will be more, if not an offer from Disney.

#1 Symbiotic Interaction

Symbiotic Interaction

The interdependence of the environment and people is the focus of this project by María Castellanos and Alberto Valverde. There is a sense of space exploration and a real purpose with the plants as they tie into the breath (CO2) cycle. Other plants also act as sensors creating a graphical display of the environment on the wearer’s glove. Modular magnetic units hold the plants in place and there is extra charm with the sounds of bird chirping as an audible feedback for changes detected in the environment. This project reflects so many interesting facets of making and ties into an important theme earning it my top rank for 2016. Thanks to all of the artists and makers who have contributed in the past year. Not only is it a joy to share your work, but it also inspires many, including moi. Cheers to the new year!


Flora breadboard is 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

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

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 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.