Technology storm has taken the millennial by surprise. Awestrucked technologies are rolling out each day. Speaking of which, Jacquard, as the Google tech lab ATAP would want to call it, is a touch sensitive fabric technology which is getting more real as we breathe.
The new head of ATAP describes crazy projects that were prototype earlier had taken the world by surprise. He excitedly talks about how Project Tango and Project Abacus went from being crazy to real shipping products and is now anticipating the Jacquard and Soli projects.
The technology is being paired up with Levi’s commuter trucker jacket. It will enable the wearer to control his phone by merely touching the sleeve of his jacket. A person can attend a phone call, block a phone call and do a bit more. It will work with Spotify, Google Maps, Strava, and Google will release some other APIs so it can be used by other developers. The touch-sensitive area is on the cuff, and in the on-stage demo it worked really well.
The technology is predicted to come in 2017 with a beta test in 2016 fall.
Levi’s is definite that it is a regular use jacket and it should not be treated anything different from the normal jacket. The apparel house wants the wearer to use it, beat on it, or for that matter get it dirty. It is not a precious technology. The connection happens over Bluetooth and the touch zone is visible with some threads and not some really big wiring. The area is very thin and flexible, though there are some chips which fit in the bottom loop of the sleeve which can be removed when doing laundry. The weave is durable and resistant to regular usage.
Levi’s is making the jacket itself, using its own supply chain. The same processes are used that Levi’s already uses for its non-techy jackets to build the Jacquard sensors into the Levi’s jacket.
Source: TheVerge
