The idea of the sparkle project came about while we discussed various forms of protection and how people often get mugged at night. Then we thought how nice would that be, if you got mugged and you didnt have to search for mase, a gun, or tazer and that a sensor activated (by you or the robber) could activate this light that would blind your attacker so that you could get away.

We researched ideas on what to do with the Freeduino Arduino board and the LED cube and found that it could be programmed to blink in reaction to various inputs.

We first constructed the LED cube and made it into a jewelry piece that could be worn fashionably, then attached it to a Piezo sensor, which when activated would cause the LED to blink. The idea of a fashionable protection device then triggered the idea of commercializing it and creating two versions, one for the budget conscious buyer (that doesnt light up as bright) and one that is slightly more but lights up incredibly bright and blinks faster.

Enjoy our wonderful commercial :P We had trouble getting the pictures to capture the blinking effect so we took some with the LEDS on and off.  The final product had much longer wire to fit comfortable around the body.  You can view the blinking effect in the video.

We composed two LED cubes, one dimmer and smaller for the budget conscious buyer and one brighter and bigger for double the price.  

Diana Le & Ellen Huang.