Google's 'Project Jacquard': A Different Kind of Wearable Technology

By Liezl Dunuan, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, June 04, 2015

In Google's recently concluded developers' conference, I/O 2015, the company's Advanced Technology and Projects Group announced an interesting project that they are embarking on which is set to bring wearable technology to a different level. Called Project Jacquard, it aims to develop "smart clothes" that interact with smart mobile devices.

Google recently found a partner for the project. It has signed a partnership with Levi Strauss to "develop interactive clothes, woven with conductive yarns and adorned with sensors discreetly integrated into buttons and seams," according to a report in Tech Times.

With these conductive yarns and sensors, clothes such as pants, shirts and jackets can be a "touch screen" of sorts. Joao Wilbert, creative technologist at Google Creative Lab in London explained the idea.

"The idea that Jacquard is an interface blended into the clothing that we're wearing has implications in the way you would use sensors, products, applications and anything that we do with our technology," he said. With "technology out of the way," the way people interact with electronics and devices can be "more neutral and more seamless."

The yarns will be made out of metallic alloys and natural fibers like cotton and polyester. With their partnership with Levi's, Google is looking at how to make these conductive yards and sensor-fitted buttons as discreet as possible such that users will not notice them.

Applications for this new technology are endless, according to another report in Fortune. It could mean better interaction between users and their smart devices including those in a smart connected home. It may not just be limited to clothes but also to other types of fabric.

Although the technology has not come out of development yet, Google may very well be in the forefront of something revolutionary. It demonstrated the use of smart threads during its I/O 2015 and encouraged its developers to explore possible applications.