SAN FRANCISCO -- Google's Advanced Technology And Projects (ATAP) division announced it is partnering with Levi's to create "interactive textiles" -- wearable technology built into regular clothing.
Called Project Jacquard, the effort focuses on making the idea of electronic clothing practical.
According the ATAP, Jacquard, rethinks -- but doesn’t significantly change -- how clothing is made to weave circuitry into fabrics themselves, while still allowing for normal tailoring, care and customer choice.
Google's Ivan Poupyrev described the process of weaving wires into normal fabric, which involved inventing new kinds of conductive yarn, in multiple colors. To see if its interactive fabric would be practical in the real world, Google gave it to Saville Row to create a jacket, which was worn at the session.
Poupyrev didn't go into much detail on exactly what the jacket could do, but he explained it could allow the wearer to answer a phone call by swiping one of the sleeves.
Google also announced it is partnering with Levi's to explore creating interactive clothing at scale. Levi's head of global product innovation, Paul Dillinger, explained why his company was interested in electronic clothing.
"If there's a chance to enable the clothing we already love… to give us access to our digital world -- while maintaining eye contact with the person you're having dinner with -- then that's a project worth doing," Dillinger said.