The Fab(ulous) Lab Journey of Sophie K.

Week 18

Invention, Intellectual Property and Business Models

My final project is "Dance of the LEDs. It will be a Shirt with LEDs that I shall dance in. It is something intended for my personal use, with potential to grow into a marketable product sold to dancers of all sort of genres. I don't mind other's taking the project and expanding on it but would love to hear about developments as that's the best way to grow after all.

Short term wise I'm looking towards having this project work first and foremost as it will be my first big tangible project! I want it to have enough colors functioning and look extremly cool too.

But later, it would be cool to turn it into a sort of body suit or just wearable line of clothing even that is sport friendly (sweat wick or absorbant) that is suited to dancers. I could envision crews like the Jabbawockeez, Kinjaz or Just Jerk. In fact maybe even Dylan Mayoral! (see videos below). I could see the LEDs really enhancing the emotion in that particular piece of Dylan's.

I am undecided if it would be best as a side dish to the performance (meaning it wouldn't always light up but could do on "request" so adding a setting to allow it to be turned on by the dancer), or part of a full performance, but I suppose it also depends on how it would be used and the range of colors being used too.

It would also look good for other forms of dance such as contemporary or ballet or even salsa. But it would definietly be more commerical use like big performance in Las Vegas rather than dance competitions or classes because in my head they are more an entertainment booster and would be somewhat useless otherwise or in other settings.

Obviously everything in the spirit of all the hcaking and open softwares I have used and thigns I have borrowed is for anyone to use. It would be great to see someone take and make it bigger and way better!....shout out would be nice though hehe.

Presentation Draft

This weeks homework:

  1. Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project
  2. Prepare drafts of your summary slide (presentation.png, 1920x1080) and video clip (presentation.mp4, 1080p HTML5, < ~minute, < ~10 MB) and put them in your root directory