Hello again, this is Jessica S. reporting on a brief update of my musical jacket? Well since my last blog post I was very excited about this project and don’t get me wrong; I still am. However, things have turned down very differently from what I expected. Since my last blog post I realize that I didn’t have the majority of the required materials on the webpage. I don’t blame this on anyone but myself; I did cry a little on the inside for a good 2 days but I realized that I just had to make the best of the situation and moved on. Let me go into details, one of the main requirements of this project was of the LilyPad Arduino board, I believed that we had one available at school which meant less expenses. The equipment that we did have was not a LilyPad Arduino, but rather an Adafruit Flora. The image below will show the similarities and differences.
As you can see, they are very similar. Initially I thought that the LilyPad Arduino just came in different colors, which would explain why they were a bit different but I would soon learn that they were just completely different as a whole. I learned the hard way that I would need to come up with a different game plan for the project. As of now I have been able to add the neo pixels and the Adafruit flora on to the jacket, but the neo pixels (equivalent to LED lights) have yet to all work in one try-turning on the battery. I have come far but my first and top priority is to get the neo pixels working in order to progress further and allow myself to decide on what route to take. Specifically within the rout of buying a lot of new materials and implementing a sort of sound, or using one of the sensors already available in class, which may very well be more economically affordable. As of now I am leaning more towards using one of the sensors, specifically between the color and heart rate sensor. The color sensor would allow the neo pixels to light up according to the touched color. The heart rate sensor will of course fit with the rate at which your heart pumps blood, which may change due to stress or due to deep emotions.
The image below will demonstrate my progress thus far. Hopefully you will be able to see the roller coaster taking shape. I hope to have all the neo pixels working with the addition of a sensor by my next blog post, thank you for reading thus far ^-^.
StarPathDesign 
Hi, this is an incredible project you have taken on! Wish I could have seen it to try and help out. I am wondering what type of language you are using to program this, and have you considered using java for processing? Something you might want to consider is how you will be using the LED’s, I know Dadmerh has some really cool spark fun kits that you maybe able to barrow to learn how to use processing to get a multicolored function in your LED’s (of course that considering that the LED’s are made for multicolored). Also the fact that y’all are working with the Adafruit flora might be better, according the this [http://hackaday.com/2012/01/21/flora-a-better-arduino-lilypad/] blog post it seems like the Adafruit flora has more capability. I hope your project continues to prospers. Good luck in your future endeavors.
Brittany:
Ah your featured image lured me in here, good job! I’m curious as to how you’ll be able to measure heart rate from a jacket, but I suppose if it’s a tight one then it makes sense. It reminds me the Chameleon Jacket that changes color based on what color you touch. If you haven’t seen it here’s a link! http://www.fastcodesign.com/3036926/this-chameleon-jacket-changes-color-based-on-what-you-touch Just something cool to look at, hope you enjoy.