The Flora

By Limor Fried & Phillip Torrone

ADAFRUIT’S NEW WEARABLE ELECTRONICS PLATFORM

At Adafruit we’re working on a new wearable electronics platform called the Flora. Wearable technology to us is just a temporary term for what’s happening with electronics. Practically everyone has an internet-connected supercomputer in their pocket now. It’s often stuck to their head, too, with a Bluetooth headset or headphones. It’s becoming “wearable,” so we think we’re bound to see more types of electronics that occupy human real estate.

Phones augment reality, wearables augment humans.

The Arduino platform has become an easy way to “glue” together ideas, sensors, and applications. In recent years we’ve been working to make it easier to get sensor information in and out of Arduinos. Wearables are prime for this. We think we’ll see an intersection of elegant fashion and thoughtful engineering.

Why? Just look at your phone; it’s not just a device for making calls. It’s filled with sensors: GPS, proximity, compass, touch, sound, temperature, and more. The smarts in a phone are self-contained, while the sensors within an Arduino-compatible wearable will sense your body and your environment. Phones augment reality, wearables augment humans. Imagine a belt that gently pulls you in the right direction to navigate a city, or an LED jacket that displays the logos and patterns of your choosing.

We started with what we and the open source community wanted in an embedded platform. There wasn’t anything out there, so we designed our own: the open source Flora. Here are some of its key features:

» Flora makes it easy to embed LEDs and animations on clothing.

» Comes with projects at launch.

» Includes the Flora-addressable and chainable 4,000mcd RGB LED pixels.

» Has USB HID (Human Interface Device) support, so it can act like a mouse, keyboard, MIDI, etc.

» Modules include: Bluetooth, GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, compass, flex sensor, piezo, IR LED, and more.

» Built-in USB support with Mac, Windows, and Linux.

» Difficult to destroy: the onboard regulator means that even connecting a 9V battery will not result in damage or tears.

Two years ago when we released the Kinect data dump (makezine.com/go/data-dump), we had no idea what would happen, but within months, hundreds, then thousands, of hackers, artists, and scientists made amazing, completely unexpected projects, taking the Kinect to new places. We think that will happen again with the Flora. Available now at makershed.com.

Limor Fried is owner and operator of Adafruit Industries (adafruit.com), an open source hardware electronics company based in New York City. Phillip Torrone is creative director of Adafruit and editor at large of MAKE.