Call Your Coat: Google’s Smart Fabrics

Together with Levi’s, Google is working on the development of ‘smart fabrics’ that react the same way to touch as a touch screen. The fabric contains works by incorporating “conductive fibres,” that detect touches and swipes like a touchscreen and then send commands to a mobile device in response. Soft and stretchable, just like any other piece of fabric, Google claims the conductive fibres are so thin that they can be woven into any type of  textile  – from shirts to jeans to any other imaginable clothing item.

Called ‘Project Jacquard,’ this smart fabric innovation is named for the early 19th-century looms that first used digital punchcards to program complex patterns. According to the New York Post, technology analysts believe this new innovation could render smartphone and other gadgets unnecessary as you could, for example, send a text message from the cuff of your coat.

In addition to function, Google is hoping that Levi’s will assist in brining their new material innovation into the fashion world with style and are turning the manufacturing over to them. It is understood that Levi with launch the first Project Jacquard design in 2016.

Looking for some design inspiration? Find out more about how Project Jacquard could change your wardrobe here.