Barbie’s Blinky Dress

Technology
Barbie’s Blinky Dress

barbies blinky dress2

A few years ago, we were happy to learn that Barbie’s 125th career (since her inception in 1959) was computer engineer. Not surprisingly, that career was decided entirely by online vote. Computer engineer Barbie came complete with pink glasses, laptop (displaying binary), and cellphone (and blue Bluetooth). Looks like those years of being a computer engineer have gotten her into soft circuits — this year an available accessory is the Digital Dress:

Always wearing the latest fashions from the red carpet to the runway, Barbie Digital Dress doll makes a customizable digital fashion statement combining fashion, sound-activation and on-trend technology. Using the latest LED and touch-screen technology, girls can create and select their own animated digital designs which appear on Barbie doll’s dress. There are three modes of play—choose from ready-to-go graphics like hearts and fireworks, draw custom designs, and watch designs respond to sound and music. Barbie doll’s black dress uses a 4.5 square inch resistive touch panel and 114 tri-color LEDs. The runway has never shined brighter!

barbies blinky dress3

And looks like she finally took a cue from Leah Buechley’s LED Tank Top project that ran in the first issue of CRAFT, in 2006.

buechley led tank top2

[via Gizmag]

4 thoughts on “Barbie’s Blinky Dress

  1. cde says:

    Thats going to be great when they hit clearance.

    1. Goli Mohammadi says:

      Good point! Armies of LED Barbies dance in my head.

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I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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