Light Headed – Advanced Wearables 2023

William Zhang, Ronit Sharma, Ali Raza

Description

The base concept of this wearable is a piece of headgear that uses solar charge throughout the day to illuminate aesthetically during dark hours of the day. The wearable itself is a cap that has a circuit pattern upon it with a cyberpunk aesthetic intertwined with a Neopixel LED strip of 8 LEDs that illuminates the cap. The circuit pattern acts as the wiring that connects the CPX at the brim of the hat to the strip up top. The circuit is made up of double-sided copper tape with wire tips connected to its ends and soldered onto the components that make up the circuit connections. The solar panels use a parallel connection to the CPX with its wiring going through holes punctured in the center of the brim connecting to the CPX underneath, as well as hot glue is used to stick the panels upon the top side of the brim. The Neopixel strip is held onto the cap using overlapping threading knitted into the cap along with partial adhesive on the bottom of the strip with hot glue holding its soldered connections at the top point of the cap. A battery plugin component that manages power throughput can also be attached to store charge over a period of time. This all rests upon a standard gray cap modifying it from something normal into a vibrant experiment in solar wearables.

Project Photos