American clothing giant Levi Strauss and Google have jointly launched the first commercial variant of the Project Jacquard smart jacket.
Smart wearable sector is lately losing sheen as smart watches and fitness trackers no longer boast game-changing innovative features and come with just incremental hardware upgrades.
Also read: Google kills text-based Captcha security tool; launches AI-powered invisible reCAPTCHA
In these dull times, the newly-introduced Google Project Jacquard, Levi's Commuter Trucker denim jacket series, brings a breath of fresh air in to the smart wearable genre.
Levi's Project Jacquard is developed in association with Google's ATAP (Advanced Technology and Project), the very division, which introduced the Project Tango phone with 3D camera sensors and Augmented Reality (AR) capability.
Levi's new Project Jacquard jacket boasts conductive yarns embedded with bespoke touch and gesture-sensitive grids that are woven throughout the textile, creating large and interactive surfaces.
With this, users can digitally connect the jacket with his/her smartphone placed in a concealed pocket inside and perform functions ranging from getting turn-by-turn navigation guidance, skip songs (compatible with Spotify music app), answer/reject calls, get nearby restaurant location details, connect to online services, apps, phone features and many more, by just tapping gesture on the jacket's sleeve.
Guess what, it is machine washable. All you need to do is to remove the electronic band on the cufflink and you are good to go.
Levi's new Commuter Trucker series Project Jacquard is slated to go sale this fall, initially in the United States for $350 (approx. €328/Rs 23,294).
Google has promised to develop more dedicated custom connectors, electronic components, communication protocols and an ecosystem of simple applications and cloud services for Project Jacquard.
Keep an eye on this space for latest news on Google Project Jacquard.
Watch the Levi's Google Projec Jacquard smart jacket demo here:
