DEF CON
The July 30-August 2, 2009 DEF CON edition whose Joe Grand / Grand Idea Studio badge used a Freescale MC56F8006 digital signal controller, MEMS microphone, RGB LED, wired badge-to-badge interface, bootloader, role-shape puzzle pieces, and a 32-entry badge-hacking contest.
Riviera Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada · United States · 2009
A Joe Grand / Grand Idea Studio electronic badge for DEF CON 17, built around a Freescale MC56F8006 16-bit digital signal controller, an amplified MEMS microphone, an RGB LED, wired multi-badge communication, and a static serial bootloader.
Lifecycle
In Party mode, the badge's RGB LED reacted to audio input volume and frequency from the onboard amplified MEMS microphone.
The badge included multi-badge communication through a wired interface, and the role shapes also formed a seven-piece physical puzzle.
The 2009 contest drew 32 official entries, with Zoz's anti-surveillance system, Team Hack the Badge's sound-fearing blimp, and 501d3r Guy's multifunction dialer/voice amplifier taking the top three places.
Grand Idea Studio documents a static serial bootloader for in-the-field firmware upgrades and links the CodeWarrior source archive.
Human, Goon, Press, Speaker, Vendor, Contest Organizer, and Uber badge shapes could be placed together as a puzzle, and Smitty & The Minions / Team Halibut earned honorable mention for combining all seven badges with modified firmware animations.
Operational history
The badge page preserves the contest lineage while leaving full per-entry reconstruction and media review for a later archive pass.
The catalogue avoids importing media from social/gallery/press surfaces while preserving source links for future review.
The entry now has a rights-cleared original documentary photo while preserving the rule against copying Grand Idea Studio all-rights-reserved project-page images, press imagery, generated art, placeholders, or social-media scrapes.