Google Enters The Yarn Business To Create Interactive Clothing With Levi's
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Google and Levi's are working together to create touch-sensitive clothing that makes the Apple Watch look like a clunky contraption of the past.
At Google's I/O conference Friday, the two Bay Area companies unveiled plans to create "smart" pants -- a seamless design that performs simple gestures like tapping or swiping to silence a phone call or send a text message.
"In our hyper-digital world, people constantly struggle to be physically present in their environment while maintaining a digital connection," said Paul Dillinger, Levi's head of global product innovation.
Levi's is Google's first official partner in Project Jacquard, a new Google division that seeks to remove the touch interface from the digital device. Instead, the search-engine giant is focused on weaving conductive yarns with sensors to turn everyday clothes and furniture into interactive surfaces.
Google's Jacquard, named after an old weaving technique for automated patterning, works by combining metallic alloys with natural and synthetic yarns such as cotton or silk to make the yarn strong enough to be woven into most anything. It then taps into discreet circuits, no larger than a button on a jacket, to wirelessly connect with smartphones or other devices.
"We have to think about making interactive textiles at the scale of the global apparel and fashion industry," Ivan Poupyrev, Google's Technical Program Lead said. "We can't expect them to change just for us, even though we are Google. We have to adapt to the fashion industry."
There's no word yet on when Levi's "smart" clothes will go on sale.