I created a fiber optic skirt. I used the Lilypad and attached LED lights along the waistband. The LED lights are intended to meet up with the fiber optics and illuminate the skirt. The copper beads dangle from the waistband and when they come in contact withe conductive fabric it disconnects the circuit and the lights turn off. So the lights respond to the model’s walk who responds to the music.
I really like how the skirt turned out but I just wished the fiber optics worked. I learned through all my projects that fiber optics are just very sassy and it would be really beneficial to find successful solutions to attach lights to fiber optics.
I would say that my project met my original goals. I actually really liked the copper bead solution instead of a sound sensor. It was a less obvious way for the lights to react to the environment instead of just using a sound sensor. It would have been very exciting if the lights had actually worked.
The fiber optics were definitely the hardest part. I unfortunately did not over come this hurdle. I really tried my best to find several solutions to get them to work but they just would not cooperate with me. So I either would not use fiber optics in the future or I would find a fool proof method to ensure that the fiber optics would work before I integrated them into a project.
I would get the fiber optics to work. I know this whole project kind of revolved around the fiber optics not working so it would be amazing if they worked!!
