The Biohacking Village Heart Badge
This year's Biohacking Village badge reboots a fan favorite as a fully functional Meshtastic node. It incorporates heart rate and blood oxygen readings to sync up its pulsing heartbeat with your heart rate. Part anatomy, part network, and completely alive.
Built with Meshtastic, the badge can securely communicate across a decentralized mesh network while its embedded monitor biomimics the rhythm of your heartbeat. It is a reminder that every signal represents a person, every connection carries responsibility, and healthcare technology should always serve the human life at its center.
Wear it. Connect it. Watch it pulse.
Because the strongest networks still begin with a heartbeat.
With Support From
Boards produced by PCBWay
See it in Action
The Heart Badge, pulsing in the wild.
Behind the Build
Inspired by Family
A couple of the most recent badges were inspired by Nina Alli's parents. Her father was a paramedic captain for the Fire Department of New York — the inspiration for the ambulance badge — and her mother was a parent coordinator at the NYC Department of Education, where the badges' research-and-reason focus comes from.
"I am very proud of [my parents'] influence in my life, and the last two badges helped me ensure that they were immortalised in the Biohacking Village and DEF CON legacy."
Badge Legacy
From cyborg skulls to homemade mead — a few of the Biohacking Village badges that came before.
AI Chatbot Badge (2025)
A pocket-sized medical chatbot running three AI models on a Raspberry Pi CM5.
by PamirAI & SolaSec
Ambulance Badge
A working badge with a built-in breathalyser — a tribute to FDNY paramedics.
by SolaSec
Cyborg Skull
A skull adorned with piercings and implants.
by Lee Wilkins
3D-Printed Heart
A printed heart with a monitor that biomimics your heartbeat.
by SolaSec
Cyborg Operation Game
The classic Operation game, reimagined with haptic feedback.
by Badge Pirates
Open-Source Watch
An open-source smartwatch — built before the Apple Watch existed.
Yeast Agar Plates
Agar plates for growing yeast — which yielded some fabulous hacker mead.
RFID Implantable Reader
A reader for RFID body implantables.