Google and Levi Strauss are teaming up to develop a wearables technology that involves super fabrics. Project Jacquard could lead to smart clothes or high-tech carpet with touchscreens that function like smartphone gadgets.
Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) was a French inventor who developed the "Jacquard loom." His creation revolutionized the textile industry, and led to the modern automatic loom.
At the Google I/O Conference 2015 for developers, the search engine giant announced its partnership with Levi's. It is a Google Advanced Technology and Projects unit experimental program, according to Quartz.
Textile makers in Japan will team up with Google to develop the "conductive fabric" that allows electricity to pass through. Amazingly the smart fabrics would be stretchable and washable like today's standard fabrics.
The new Google wearables product would like regular industrial looms, but the touch-screen fabric could store data, according to News Quench. It could thus receive gesture or touch commands.
Google's smart fabric could have several applications. The tap of a shirt's chest pocket could make a call, or stepping on a particular spot of a smart carpet could change the room temperature. Other I/O Conference applications included controlling smartphone music and smart light bulbs.
Wearable gadgets have become a hot trend in the tech world. Google Glass, one of the first wearable electronics products, featured applications such as making videos and reading data.
Other popular wearable devices include smartwatches, such as the Apple Watch. They ironically boost consumer demand for a product that smartphones have basically made obsolete: wristwatches.
It has been a rocky road for the wearables market, with Google Glass being discontinued, and "fantastic" Apple Watch sales figures being unreleased. However, the Google-Levi's partnership seems to imply that tech companies think that wearables tech is the thing of the future.
Levi Strauss & Co. was founded in 1853 during the California Gold Rush. Strauss converted a pair of canvas overalls into pants by using a French cotton cloth, and invented "blue jeans" when he received a patent in 1873 for the denim rivets.