The Internet of Ugly Christmas Sweaters
"An ugly sweater is great — but what's even better is an IoT-enabled ugly sweater."
If you get invited to an ugly sweater Christmas party — or even better, a normal party — and really want to stand out, why not add a few LEDs? In the Microsoft Developer video below, Oliver Bloch and Jim Bennet show off their super-ugly, IoT-enabled sweaters thanks to Raspberry Pi Zero W units and the Azure IoT Central platform.
The build is fairly simple, with a strand of Adafruit NeoPixels hooked up to the Zero W for control and sewn under the sweater (which acts as a light diffuser). This in turn is controlled by Azure IoT Central, which can change the lighting pattern. As shown, this even gives it the ability to listen on Twitter for certain commands and respond, and in theory it could work with a computer vision system or other sensors as well.
The simplicity of the project means that an experienced developer could pull this off in a few hours (or less), and be ready to make a splash at the next holiday gathering. On the other end of the spectrum, the video presents the Pis and IoT Central in a way that would make sense without a lot of background information, so it could be a great intro to the world of IoT for those that are uninitiated. Code and step-by-step instructions can be found on GitHub!
[h/t: Raspberry Pi]