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Sunday, May 22, 2016

Google and Levi’s synergy on a “connected” jacket that enables you to answer calls, use maps and much more

At Google’s I/O meeting today, Google’s Advanced Technology as well as Projects (ATAP) research device offered an update upon its interactive textiles project unveiled this past year, Project Jacquard. ATAP’s Ivan Poupyrev announced how the company was collaborating along with iconic clothing company, Levi’s, to launch a “connected” smart jacket targeted at urban cyclists that enables wearers to do such things as control their music, answer telephone calls, access navigation and much more, all by tapping and swiping about the jacket’s sleeve.

Google’s partnership with Levi’s was initially announced last year, however the two companies hadn’t yet disclosed the way the clothing maker would put into action Project Jacquard’s technology.

In the event you missed it previously, this project involves weaving multi-touch sensors into clothes to make what you’re wearing the actual new…well…”wearable” computing device.

The concept with this new Levi’s Commuter coat, explained the company, would be to make something that’s each fashionable to wear whilst also representing a practical implementation from the technology.

Today, cyclists usually have to fuss with their own phone while commuting upon busy streets, which is actually dangerous.

With Levi’s Commuter coat, they’ll instead be in a position to just touch their jacket’s cuff, using gestures to manage various functions they would otherwise have to pull out their phone to complete.

The jacket will take part in Levi’s Commuter collection associated with clothing, which is largely targeted at urban dwellers who trip bikes to navigate their own city.

A Jacquard tag is embedded within the jacket’s sleeve, making this particular functionality possible, and it may be pulled out and billed via USB. This tag connects using the LED, haptics, battery and also the woven sensor in the actual garment. The connection points for that tech cleverly takes benefit of the jacket’s button-hole to appear less obtrusive.


In add-on, the platform includes the mobile application that links your smart clothes towards the cloud. Here is where customers will control the apps that use the connected garment.

In addition, the company stressed, you should use the Levi’s jacket like every other article of clothing -- wad it up, throw it within the wash, etc.

“There’s a distinctive challenge in creating a good clothes platform - fashion and technology need to work as one however there’s inherent tension between your two, ” said Poupyrev. “Technology is actually fragile, garments… are not really. ”

In addition in order to controlling native phone features like calls, as nicely as Google Maps as well as Google Play Music, Search engines says the jackets may interoperate with third-party providers. That means you’ll have the ability to use the touches to manage your Spotify music, for instance, or a connected health and fitness app, like Strava. APIs may also be made available.

During a demo on stage in the event, the companies showed off the way the jacket worked.

For example, running fingers up as well as down the cuff managed the music volume. An additional feature, “Compass, ” was accessed having a swipe. After doing therefore, a voice assistant knowledgeable the wearer, Levi’s VP associated with Innovation Paul Dillinger, of the next meeting time and just how long it would take to reach.

While the demo proceeded to go off well, you could see there is a slight stiffness about the cuff where the devices were woven in, and a bulge. It’s unclear how comfortable that'll be - or how appealing.

Google says it plans to utilize other apparel makers later on to expand Jacquard’s achieve, including athletic clothing companies and people who design business put on. (Though not mentioned aloud, Cinta’s logo briefly appeared on a single slide during the presentation throughout the partners discussion. )

Perhaps on most interest is that this particular jacket isn’t some far-off fantasy, as it turns out - it'll “launch” into beta screening this fall, then become publicly obtainable in spring 2017, says Search engines.

Pricing info was not really offered.

Techsourcenetwork