The GizmoLab Power Glove Badge Is a Tiny Homage to the "So Bad" Power Glove

Mononymous maker Tommy, of Italian electronics design house GizmoLab, has put together an electronic badge that serves as a love letter to an icon of 1980s video gaming: the Nintendo Power Glove.

"[It's] a Power Glove-inspired badge, based on the movie The Wizard," Tommy explains of the compact device. "Why did [I] make it? Because I love the movie The Wizard and the iconic glove from the film."

The real Power Glove was first made by PAX for the Nintendo Famicom, released as the パワーグローブ (Pawā Gurōbu.) A cost-reduced implementation of a gesture control device originally developed for virtual reality systems, the DataGlove, the Power Glove used ultrasonic emitters and sensors to detect the rotation of the user's wrist and flex sensors to track the user's finger movements. Featuring a design inspired by the sci-fi film RoboCop, the clunky wearable was not a commercial success — despite Nintendo spending considerable money on The Wizard, a marketing vehicle disguised as a major motion picture starring Fred Savage.

As a badge, Tommy's homage to the Power Glove is also a wearable — though considerably shrunken. It doesn't track movement, and you can't use it to play any games; instead, three color-coded buttons trigger three animated messages on the badge's 0.91" single-color OLED display. "It also comes with a 3D-printed case to protect the screen," Tommy adds. "You can place it on top or glue it directly to the PCB. Your choice!"

Tommy is selling limited quantities of the badge through the GizmoLab Tindie store at $60.