Google announced Friday that it is working with iconic US
jean maker Levi Strauss to make clothing from specially woven fabric with
touch-screen control capabilities.
The Internet titan used its annual developers conference in
San Francisco to reveal its so-called Project Jacquard and to spotlight Levi
Strauss as its first partner.
Named after a Frenchman who invented a type of loom, Project
Jacquard is in the hands of a small Google team called Advanced Technology and
Projects (ATAP), which is different from the Google (x) lab that developes
big-vision innovations such as self-driving cars.
"We are enabling interactive textiles," Emre
Karagozler of ATAP said as the smart fabric was shown off in an area set up to
look like cloth coming out of a loom.
"We do it by weaving conductive threads into
fabric."
The special threads can be woven into a wide array of
fabrics, and be made to visually stand out or go unnoticed depending on
designers' wishes.
Conductivity can be limited to desired parts of fabric or spread
across entire cloth.
"It is stretchable; it is washable," Karagozler
said as people controlled lights or computer screens with finger strokes on a
blue cloth covering a table in the display area behind him.
"It is just like normal fabric."
Project Jacquard makes it possible to weave touch and
gesture interactivity into any textile using standard, industrial looms,
according to Google.
Anything involving fabric, from suits or dresses to
furniture or carpet, could potentially have computer touch-pad style control
capabilities woven.
Conductive yarn is connected to tiny circuits, no bigger
than jacket buttons, with miniaturized electronics that can use algorithms to
recognize touches or swipes, ATAP said.
The data can be sent wirelessly to smartphones or other
devices, enabling actions such as making phone calls or sending messages with
brushes of fabric.
"In our hyper-digital world, people constantly struggle
to be physically present in their environment while maintaining a digital
connection," said Levi Straus's head of global product innovation Paul
Dillinger, who took part in a Google presentation at the gathering.
"The work that Google and Levi's are embarking upon
with Project Jacquard delivers an entirely new value to consumers with apparel
that is emotional, aspirational and functional."
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