So we decided to try incorporated a reed switch into a wearable article. We thought about how to activate the switch through the interaction of two people. We were sick and tired of those old fashioned, analog handshakes and hi-fives, and so the led ring was born. We needed to make two rings, one for the led and switch, and another for the magnet that activates it.
May made a fabric ring
Wolfgang made a wooden one
Lusha and Vidhi tackled the electronics
we hooked it up to the battery and it worked great, like a super cheap, code-free proximity sensor. The battery’s not so pretty, but it could get redesigned with a coin cell maybe. The next model would also need to protect the reed switch a little better. The reed switch is basically just a tiny glass tube with tinier pieces of metal in it and it’s pretty fragile.
We made a spy movie out of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUL_8lPHycw