Cornell student's graduation cap sports super-bright LEDs that attendees control from the web
At university graduations, students often deck out their academic regalia with glittery text and other shiny objects to help family members identify them among the crowd. As you might expect, the design sophistication can vary depending on the youngster's major, but at Cornell this year, one scholar clearly stole the show. Jeremy Blum, the proud new owner of a master's degree in electrical engineering, one-upped his classmates with Control my Cap, a WiFi-connected headpiece that packs 16 350mA high-brightness LEDs. Blum installed four red, green, blue and white LEDs in a clear light diffuser attached to his stock grad cap using a 3D-printed holder. He then embedded a Raspberry Pi computer and a $20 Adafruit LCD module with keypad within a wrist-mounted holder he printed with a MakerBot Replicator. Finally, a simple mobile site served as an interface for attendees, who could submit colors for the cap to display. We bet his professors are very proud.