The Defcon Badge: Sleek, Stylish and Hackable

It's unlike any conference badge you've ever seen before--sleek, stylish, programmable, and made out of metal. It's the Defcon 18 conference badge, set to be unveiled Thursday at the annual hacker conference in Las Vegas. Here's a first look at this year's badge.

Image Credit: Joe Grand

More than a fanzy gizmo, the defcon badge is a powerful computing device, just waiting to be hacked. This is the fifth year that Joe Grand has designed an electronic badge for the event. Pictured here is a coveted black "Uber" badge, reserved for winners of the annual Defcon badge-hacking contest. Its owner gets free Defcon admission for life.

Image Credit: Joe Grand

There are seven different versions of the badge: Uber, human (for attendees), vendor, speaker, contest (organizers), goon (show staff), and press. Each badge costs about $14 to make -- that's a pretty high-flying badge, when you consider that Defcon admission is just $140.

Image Credit: Joe Grand

Instead of the fiberglass boards typically used by most circuit-boards, this year's badges are made of a sleek lithographed aluminum.

Image Credit: Robert McMillan

The "piece de resistance," Grand says, is the low-power 128 by 32 pixel blue-and-white display. Built by Ohio's Kent Displays this cholesteric liquid crystal screen retains the image even without power. But you can wipe it out with your finger.

Image Credit: Robert McMillan

To make hacking easier, this year's model comes with a USB port. Just plug it into your laptop and start hacking.

Image Credit: Joe Grand

Joe Grand holds a prototype of the badge in his San Francisco workshop, pictured in May.

Image Credit: Robert McMillan

All seven badges set side by side form a conference montage.

Image Credit: Joe Grand

Neil Kronenberg's original drawing, used for the badge art this year. Kronenberg does the Web site and conference material illustrations for Defcon too.

Image Credit: Neil Kronenberg