Yellow Fur Vest and Tophat

The design process for this outfit started with one goal: to inspire smiles.  The bright yellow vest is made of two types of faux fur, with the longer pile used for the area on the shoulders and across the top of the back. The same fur is used to cover the sides and top of a tophat.  Both pieces are illuminated by a few types of LEDs.

On the vest, several hundred RGB LED pixels are arranged in a grid on the torso, and are also mounted in the ends of clear silicone tubes emerging from the top of the vest. A second set of LEDs (which can be operated independently) creates a gold smiley face on the back, and two stripes across each side of the chest.  The gold LEDs can be animated in a steady glow or in a few speeds of chasing patterns.  The RGB LED pixels have their own set of animation patterns, including several red/gold and rainbow options.  The yellow fur on the torso acts as a diffuser for the light, and also shifts the emitted colors more towards yellow/gold.

The hat has RGB LED pixels mounted in the ends of tubes at the top, and in a closely-spaced chain of lights running around the brim.  The hat is also decorated with a permanently-attached set of white goggles, which include an internal sandwich of reflective surfaces to produce an infinity mirror effect from the LEDs facing inward around the edges of each lens.  An additional panel of LEDs is placed at the back of each "eye," providing two more locations for smiley face logos in some of the modes.

video

The video below shows some of the effects when viewing the front and back of the vest, as well as a closer view of the hat.