Solving the sticky badge problem
22 May 2011
If you go along to a tech event (like say OpenTech this last weekend), one of the first things you'll probably be directed to on entering (other than the bar) will be a stack of sticky labels and some pens. This is intended to solve the dual problems of not everyone knowing everyone else, as well as some of us possibly knowing each others Twitter names but not what some folks look like out in the real world. It does fix the problem pretty well, but there's a few flaws.
- My handwriting sucks.
- Most badges aren't visible at any decent distance
- They're annoying, especially if you end up having to remove a layer of clothing because the aircon isn't coping with many geeks in a small space and then the sticker needs moving...
Enter a solution I've had in my head for a while, but just got around to building this week: 
Essentially it's a holder for a set of big business cards with my details written on them that hangs around my neck as a replacement id. This means that a) people can read my details and b) if they want to remember me, they can take one off the stack. The business cards in this particular case have been made with a laser cutter and some thick card, as I didn't have time to get properly printed ones, but that's actually turned out pretty well :)
The holder itself is made out of 3mm MDF, again laser-cut at the hackspace. There's also some detail on the back:
Also of interest is the lanyard, which is some random 4-core wire rigged up to a pair of USB connectors (and it does actually still work as a USB extension cord!
It's still got a few bugs (the front bits of the cable poke out a bit at the front, which makes removing the cards a bit fiddly sometimes), but not bad for 3 evenings work. The holder itself is made from a hacked-up version of the earlier sculpture code I'd written, but the cards were designed "manually" (although I might write some code to generate plans for more of them at some other point).