CrunchGear

Savvy NYU Computer Science major Shirley Palma wanted to be able to update her friends about her mood on twitter without having log on to her computer or mess around with text messaging, so she rigged a handkerchief to do it for her.

Called the Hanker-‘tude, a post on sewing blog burdastyle, explains how it works: “when the soft switch is closed by tying the handkerchief, the ‘Lilypad Arduino’ detects it. A Bluetooth module called a bluesmirf, attached to the ‘Lilypad Arduino’ then sends the message that the switch was closed to a Nokia n80 phone…Palma wrote an application in Mobile Python, a mobile programming language that takes the information about the handkerchief being tied and then updates twitter via e-mail with pre-selected messages.”

As Palma explained about the project, “Having to interface continuously with a gadget to update your online presence is a drag on your real-life presence. Using a bandanna/handkerchief instead is at least briefly amusing and requires only minimal setup typing.”

For more about Palma, and pictures of her dog modeling the Hanker-‘tude see her blog.