Final Project

My final project idea has changed several times. Initially, I thought about creating an umbrella that only appears in the rain, then a mushroom-shaped music house, and later a wearable voice reminder bracelet. Finally, I decided to design earrings, which is something I really like.

The inspiration for this story may have come from last winter when I was preparing for a market. I used laser cutting to create earrings using acrylic, wood, and yarn. Surprisingly, they sold quite well. Here's what they looked like (and there were many more that I didn't photograph):

Annotation:

1-The first image is called "Dream of Dali".

2-The second image features a cute kitten that I really like, and coincidentally, the market's theme revolved around small pets.

3-The third image shows personalized letters crafted by a gentleman for a girl, wishing them everlasting sweetness and happiness.

After this period of learning, I've been pondering why we don't see much integration of electronics with earrings around us. Is it because they might be too heavy? Is the area of earrings too small to work with electronics effectively? Or maybe they're not seen as fun enough? It does seem challenging to make them work, but challenges can be exciting!

Market Research

I first looked into the mainstream market for electronic earrings, but I found only simple designs and LED lighting effects that did not inspire me to make a purchase.

Then on YouTube, I came across a favorite blogger who had two updates on earrings. The first one was LED Matrix Earrings(Video), which featured spirited LED animations.

I was amazed to see him create an LED matrix inside a piercing, giving it a surgical look when worn on the ear. Another was the LED Industrial Piercing(Video). I really liked the effect, like having little sprites dancing on your ear.

So, what do I want to do?

First, there are many types of earrings: stud, drop, hoop, dangle, etc. After I got my ears pierced, I realized my earlobes are quite large, so wearing something with weight is painful. Therefore, I decided to make dangling earrings!

I sketched some designs and chose one I liked, featuring elements like stars and planets. I want to wear the universe on my ears.

The style would look something like this. I haven't figured out exactly how to integrate it with the sensor yet. There will definitely be LED lights as output, but due to the small size of each part of the earring, it's challenging to integrate it with PCBs and such.