Sound reactive led jacket 
made during Interface Lab at IMA Low Res
Summer 2025




My initial concept was to create a jacket that had sound reactive LEDs in 
the hood and around other openings in the jacket. 
The lights would range from blue, purple and pink depending on the volume of the sound sensed in the environment.


Process

This project grew out of a smaller project I had completed within the first two weeks of Interface Lab. We were tasked with creating a “stepping stone” for our final project. I played with neopixels and made a short circuit with a touch sensor that would light up the neopixel strip when touched. I had known I wanted to make a sound reactive led jacket and this “hello world” was a great start with working with neopixel strips.

I broke down my components that I would need to create this jacket:
neopixel strips, jacket, sound sensor, breadboard for prototyping. 

Initially I worked with a sparkfun microamplifier sound sensor to map the sound levels to certain colors on the neopixel strip.
After adding a second neopixel strip I realized my sound sensor stopped working. 
Due to timing I shifted to having p5.js read audio input and send data to the neopixel strips as the sound sensor was proving to be unreliable and was difficult to source on short notice. 

The final project featured 145 neopixels, 3 strips soldered together, one jacket from uniqlo, 
a breadboard hidden away, Arduino Nano 33 loT and p5.js sketch and visualizer.

Future Ideas

- Adding another sensor that would cause the lights to be off if not sensing 
a lot of movement and then when someone is dancing or moving more the lights would turn on.
- Using a Flora rather than an Arduino Nano so it could be easily worn.


Technical Breakdown:

• 145 neopixels (3 strips soldered together)
• One jacket from uniqlo
• Breadboard
• Arduino Nano 33
• P5.js sending sound data to neopixel for color data