It’s Electric: 14 Fun and Interactive Conductive Designs

Conductive Greeting Card Kit

Conductive Design Greeting Cards

The same company that produced the MusicInk and the body paint sells a fun greeting card kit with three electronic cards and a 10 mL pen of Bare Conductive paint. You use the pen to draw traces and connect components on the front of the card to light up the eyes and hearts.

Conductive Dinner Plate Design

Conductive Design Plate

Merging a mundane object with contemporary tech, this conductive plate design uses the conductive properties of silk-screened gold or Amorphic Metal films to run a current through the ‘decoration’. Why? There’s actually a practical purpose: aside from just looking cool, it keeps your food warm as you eat.

Conductive Minimalist Sandals ‘Connect to the Vital Energies of Earth’

Conductive Design Earth Runner SHoes

This particular project doesn’t use a battery or other electrical source to charge the little conductive copper insets embedded into the soles of a pair of minimalist sandals. Rather, it relies on the ‘vital energies of the Earth.’ The idea is that they help you absorb this energy while running. “Typical footwear blocks these natural incoming flows of vital ground source energy, and thus impacts our health and how we move and live upon the earth.”

Conductive Makeup Could Activate Gadgets

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Scientist Katia Vega believes that conductive makeup could be developed with the potential to interact with wearable gadgets and other technology. For example, conductive nail polish could enable gesture control, while eye shadow or metallicized false lashes could use blink sensors could activate an LED headset (as seen i the photo above.)

Climate Dress Monitors CO2 in the Air

Conductive Design LED Dress

Not only does this dress monitor the levels of carbon dioxide in the air, it displays the info via LED lights sewn right into the fabric. The dress has a separate monitor that can be worn as an accessory and is constructed “using soft circuit techniques including the Lilypad Arduino.”

Bad Weather-Sensing Necklace

Conductive Design Self Heating Jacket

Conductive thread sewn into this rather unusual-looking collar/necklace enables the embedded LED lights to flash and play the song ‘Here Comes the Sun’ when the attached sensor thinks it’s cloudy outside. Maybe not the most practical item on this list, but it’s certainly an interesting use of the technology.