A Seattle-based engineer wants to help Seahawks fan express their fandom with a geeky wearable light.
Jason Rubadue is the inventor of FanFlare, a new gadget that responds to noise. The louder you yell, the faster the light flashes.
“I’m a big Seahawks fan, passionate about making devices, and would love to shock the world with a new form of 12th Man ‘noise,'” Rubadue said.
Rubadue, who lives in the Seattle area but works for Dallas-based Texas Instruments, came up with the idea for FanFlare after he was watching his friends get dressed up and yell during a Seahawks game.
“As you know, we (the 12th Man) try so hard to be disruptive and I thought, ‘I can do better than that,'” he said. “I’m an electrical engineer and have a lab at home with a 3D printer, so I got to work on it.”
To build the device, Rubadue used a handful of Texas Instruments products that can sense volume levels and increase flashing frequency. The device just won an award at a Texas Instruments inventor competition, which also has a slot that lets you swap out different team logos, stickers, or name tags.
Rubadue, who was voted as Texas Instruments’ “2015 Chief Geek,” said he’s sold about 100 FanFlare devices and hopes to sell more as another NFL season approaches in September. The gadget retails for $29.99, but with one caveat.
“I refuse to sell to the New England Patriots,” Rubadue said.
