SILICON

摘要

Thanks to the open source Arduino microprocessor, hobbyists don't need to mess with soldering irons or circuit boards to computerize their gadgets-to hack their alarm clocks, say, or put their thermostats online. But few have pushed the Arduino as far as Marc DeVidts, who used one to orchestrate a particularly dramatic wardrobe change. For last fall's Dragon ~*Con, the annual sci-fi megashow in Atlanta, he wanted a costume unlike any other. Applying his scientific mind to the task, the software engineer hit on a rule of thumb for convention wear: Blinky lights good. "If you have a bunch of LEDs or anything that blinks, people love it," he says. "So I decided that I would just make a whole suit!" What he envisioned was a white getup with embedded flashing lights, like a futurist Saturday Night Fever where John Travolta wears the dance floor. This was easier said than done-it took two months of engineering, programming, and sewing-but by opening night, DeVidts had created what has to be the coolest, flashiest suit in the history of Dragon ~*Con.