{"id":77169,"date":"2015-06-04T20:35:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T00:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2021-08-24T11:41:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T15:41:39","slug":"project-jacquard-puts-a-touchpanel-in-your-pants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/project-jacquard-puts-a-touchpanel-in-your-pants\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Jacquard Puts a Touchpanel In Your Pants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Project<\/a>At the recent Google I\/O 2015 conference<\/a>, they unwrapped Project Jacquard<\/a><\/strong>. With Project Jacquard (named for a kind of weaving that requires a special loom)\u00a0Google<\/a><\/strong> (GOOG<\/a>) is creating a sort of conductive yarn<\/a><\/strong> that can embed right into fabrics. The plan is to weave those threads into meshes, to create interactive clothing patches that can sense your touch, how hard you’re pressing on them, and even your hand’s position in space before it even makes contact with the fabric.<\/p>\n

Project Jacquard teams with Levi’s<\/h3>\n

\"Google<\/a>Engadget<\/a><\/em> reports<\/a> that during the Google ATAP address, Technical Program Lead Ivan Poupyrev<\/a> confirmed that the search giant is teaming up with Levi’s<\/strong> to bring\u00a0Jacquard’s technically complex fabrics<\/strong> to the world of fashion. He told the gathered Google groupies that the new tech is important to the Google future; “We want digital to be just the same thing as quality of yarn or colors used.<\/em><\/p>\n

One video demo showed a person swiping<\/strong> across the length of their forearm to initiate a phone call<\/strong> on a nearby Nexus 6. Engadget’s<\/em>\u00a0Chris Velazco<\/a> says it is the seamlessness of behavior that’s got companies like Levi’s so worked up. Proponents of the tech claim it will reduce digital distractions<\/strong> caused by smartphones and smartwatches.<\/p>\n

Improved safety claims<\/h3>\n

\"Levi's<\/a>Levi Straus’s head of product innovation Paul Dillinger said that notion is what really caught the clothier’s imagination. Levi’s believes they can help reduce digital distractions through, “the clothes we love to interface with the digital world while maintaining eye with the people we’re having dinner with<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

According<\/a> to Engadget’s<\/em>\u00a0Roberto Baldwin<\/a>,\u00a0the conductive surface<\/strong> uses low-power Wi-Fi<\/a><\/strong> to communicate with devices. While the demo was on a flat surface, the other electronics needed to power and connect the fabric to a device are not quite ready to be sewn into your pants. The team is still working on shrinking those components down to integrate with its loom. But once they do, you might be swiping your next jacket to control your smartphone.<\/p>\n

rb-<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Levi’s expects to release a pair of jeans with a touch panel in early 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fast Company<\/a> cites\u00a0predictions<\/a>\u00a0from Gartner that “smart garments” will become a regular part of our wardrobes. By 2016, smart garments should\u00a0make up 26 million of the 91 million units shipped for wearables, vs. 19 million for wristbands. And it’s only going to get bigger from there.<\/em><\/p>\n

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