From Hackernews: Project Jacquard
https://www.google.com/atap/project-jacquard/
A Google project about using conductive yarn in standard industrial looms. Sounds really interesting, I don't know if this is state of the art or what, but bring on the reactive-video t-shirts, mu-mus and hoodies!
Google and Levi's are Weaving Computers into your Clothes
Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group is one of the most exciting divisions of any major technology company: It’s where Project Ara, Google's modular phone experiment, and Project Tango, Google's 3D-mapping tool, were born and are continuing to be incubated. Now, Google is shooting for the moon with another big idea—Project Jacquard.
Project Jacquard is an effort to invisibly incorporate computers into objects, materials, and clothing. Everyday items such as sweaters, jackets, and furniture will be turned into interactive surfaces that can be used as trackpads, buttons and more. The objects will receive information directly from the surface of the material used to build them, eliminating the need for bulky plastic or metal parts. The objects will then transmit information to a nearby smartphone or computer using low-powered Wi-Fi.
http://www.popsci.com/googles-levi%27s-computers-clothing-project-jacquard
Original Submission #1 and Original Submission #2
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @10:50PM
Hold still! Wait! I'll just swat this bug on your leg, (swat), there, all gone.
Oh, sorry, didn't mean to log you off...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 01 2015, @03:26AM
Of course, the Google will serve you ads to the relevant products at the first occasion (oh, you didn't want that occasion be that public? Mmmmaybe you'd consider some sort of a subscription?)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday June 01 2015, @07:37AM
I'm glad that finally real world problems will now finally have a solution, thanks to google.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @10:54PM
Conductive yarn you say. If this news gets connected with that other news about the 6000 North Koreans hackers this just explains how they'll kill us. They are going to connect to our clothing via the wi-fi and electrocute us all via the conductive yarn. That is how they are going to kill us!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Sunday May 31 2015, @10:55PM
In what way will this fuckup your privacy and freedom to tinker?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2015, @10:57PM
That would be counterfeiting! You can't
tinkercounterfeit Levi's and get away with it[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 01 2015, @03:29AM
In so many various ways that it would crash SN if posting the entire list.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2015, @11:07PM
Bendy electronic [technologyreview.com] components [phys.org] and batteries [wired.com] already work.
But many more man-hours will be needed to create products that are useful and/or desirable. With this Levi's partnership or other tech-fashion [vogue.com] partnerships [luxottica.com], we're expected to believe that trendy luxury firms will fill in a creative gap and help to create a wearable item people actually want to wear (Apple skips this step because it is already a tech-fashion firm). We'll see if that proves to be true. What's going on with Apple Watch sales [google.com]?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @11:19PM
Levis has been doing experimental 3D scanning of people for custom cut clothing, and talking to at least one company (mine) about conductive weaves since the last millennium.
Maybe the tech is finally ready to do something more then one-offs. Maybe Google and Levis are just playing with one-offs again. Care to spend $3K for a jacket with a built in touch-screen so people can poke you in the back to interact with whatever you're displaying? Yeah, all 4 of you can wait in line for that.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 01 2015, @03:38AM
You joking, right?
Once the tech is mature, it will get to China/Bangladesh and it will come back so cheap that Google will send you free knickers to wear all day everyday, just like it gives you a free email (because you are the product and it doesn't matter what brand of smartphone you display for others to see, you can still hide your Google underwear).
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @05:42AM
I watched the video of the Project Jaquard announcement at I/O and they were mostly talking the difficulties of scaling things up. The section started with saying the problem they want to solve is not how to make "smart" garments, but how to make it so every clothing manufacturer can make them. The main part is a new way of doing conductive thread that they claim can scale up to industrial clothing production and be different colors and intermix with different fabrics. They also talked about making it easy to plug into.
Not sure I really believe in their vision, but they seem to be addressing the right problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @04:37AM
so is this anything like bugs sewn into clothing for human tracking?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 01 2015, @05:17AM
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford