The Most Advanced Badge We've Ever Built
The Biohacking Village badge isn't just another DEF CON souvenir — it's a computational powerhouse. Leveraging Raspberry Pi's Compute Module 5, it gives wearers their own pocket-sized medical chatbot that listens and provides viable feedback, all running on the edge with no internet connection.
See it in Action
Wearers ask their badge medical questions, and it responds with treatment ideas.
How It Was Built
SolaSec partnered with the Biohacking Village to deliver a next-generation badge that could showcase AI in the medical space — something local, private, and interactive, powered entirely on the edge. That required far more on-board processing than a typical badge, so SolaSec stuck with the hardware philosophy that keeps their designs easy to repair and replicate: Raspberry Pi — this time the Compute Module 5.
That's where PamirAI came in. Their work in local AI aligned closely with SolaSec's vision, and together they adapted Pamir's Distiller design to support the CM5. PamirAI provided the baseboard and the software stack; SolaSec handled the physical design, the 3D-printed enclosures, and final assembly. The result combined accessible hardware, practical design, and cutting-edge AI — the most powerful badge the Village has ever produced.
Each year's badge is meant to be a piece of portable, stylised iconography: bio-based, technically challenging, and carrying a capture-the-flag game. They take about a year to make — ideation begins at one DEF CON and the finishing touches land at the next — with the real goal of exposing people to biomedical influences that might just inspire the next life-changing device.
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.