
Jacquard by Google transforms clothing - relyio
https://atap.google.com/jacquard/
======
StefanKarpinski
This may be the worst, least informative technology website I've ever seen –
and that is a high (low?) bar. It fails the "what is it?" test with
spectacular aplomb. And never have I learned less from a "learn more" page.
“Music should keep you moving, not make you look at your phone.” Um, yeah, ok,
thanks for that helpful information.

~~~
ucaetano
Have you thought that maybe you're not the target audience for that page, and
that most people in the world are not interested in the technical details as
you are?

~~~
personjerry
But where are the non-technical details?

~~~
ucaetano
From the page:

 _Specifically tailored with the urban cyclist in mind, the Levi’s Commuter
Trucker Jacket was designed for getting around the city. The jacket features
articulated shoulders to provide extra room to maneuver, reflectors, and a
dropped hem to keep you covered as you ride. You can easily access your
digital world because Jacquard technology is woven right into the sleeve._

 _Tiny electronics contained in the flexible snap tag connect the Jacquard
Threads in the jacket’s cuff to your mobile device.1 The snap tag lets you
know about incoming information, like a phone call2, by giving you light and
haptic feedback. Inspired by a strap that you would see on a cuff, it looks
and feels like it’s a part of the jacket. The tag also houses the battery
which can last up to 2 weeks between USB charges.3_

------
SurrealSoul
I feel like we are pushing this wearable tech thing too hard. Pushing all the
cool ways we can put stuff into things (ordering pizza from your shoes,
snapchatting from your glasses) but they ALWAYS boil down to "You can touch
XYZ instead of your phone to pause your music".

When we will get some decent applications, instead of enhancing the form

~~~
misterbowfinger
One way to look at wearable tech is as an extension of the surface of your
smartphone. If you can interact with your phone throughout your clothing,
there could be a lot of room for (warning, buzzword!) innovation there.

~~~
ballenf
Extension of the touch sensing aspect of the phone screen, not the display
aspect. Extending one without the other leads to over-engineered pause
buttons, is what the parent comment was saying I think. When the number of
unlabeled buttons get much higher than 1, people start to get confused.

I agree in part, just think that the jacket needs to be paired with a HUD or
maybe have control/button labels that can shine through the fabric in order to
open up that innovation.

~~~
misterbowfinger
I'm not sure we need screens on our jackets, we just need two-way
communication. Right now, Jacquard only allows one-way communication (human ->
device), but perhaps there could be a touch-sensitive way for the device to
communicate as well.

This would be huge for things like heart monitors and emergency phone calls. A
lot of room for "cool social apps for teens", and almost definitely for
gaming/VR.

~~~
ballenf
Good point. The two paths on a phone are touch/mic/gyro input and
screen/speakers/vibe output, but we don't need all three of those outputs for
clothing-based touch input to work.

------
colorincorrect
Watching the YT video, is this just a denim jacket with a touch sensor on the
sleeve cuff?

~~~
simias
Yeah I don't really get it either. Why not sell the sensor on its own so that
I can wear it on anything I want? What's the added value of having it sewn to
your jacket? It's not like it's particularly small or discreet.

~~~
EddieRingle
This has been a few years in the making. The actual innovation here is the new
gesture-sensitive fabric being woven into the denim, not whatever it's talking
to.

------
alexasmyths
C: That'll be $9.99

A: Sorry, I forgot my jacket

C: Oh, we have some convenience nike bio-gloves if you want ...

A: Not biosynced to me.

C: Oh. Uhmm ... face scan?

A: I'm not American, I'm not in your DB.

C: Bitcoin?

D: No jacket.

C: What do we do then?

D: Do you take cash young robot?

C: You mean like paper? No, it's 2040. Paper cash is unhygienic.

D: So no coffee?

C: I guess not. Sorry. Next.

~~~
shimon
2040 startup idea: body-identity-based micro-credit. "You forgot your wallet,
but you look fairly legit. For a 5% surcharge, we'll give you that coffee now.
Pay this IOU online later. In case of nonpayment, you consent to nationwide
tracking by our network of facial recognition drones."

~~~
fixermark
... which sounds pretty close to Amazon's idea.
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amazon-go-grocery-
store_...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amazon-go-grocery-
store_us_58459015e4b017f37fe5b133)

~~~
shimon
Cool, but the Amazon Go store relies on you authenticating yourself (and
presumably paying) via an app.

Do you think they contemplated doing visual ID of the shopper, or would it
just be too creepy to walk into the store and have it say "Hello Dave, I'll
put it all on your tab!"

------
wiradikusuma
Isn't cycling/driving with earphone plugged dangerous? I've tried it, and I
couldn't hear the ambience sounds surrounding me.

~~~
falcolas
Ironically, this mostly depends on you. If you lose the sense of vehicles and
people around you, your music/navigation is up too high.

Even with the best isolating headphones (around 25db; most non-IEM models
offer much less isolation), you can still hear ambiant noises (unless your
hearing is damaged to the point where isolating headphones do make you deaf).
And with the standard set of Apple style headphones, they won't dampen the
outside world at all.

Losing the ambiant noises will only occur when you overwhelm them out with
your music, podcast, or navigation.

~~~
falsedan
> _Even with the best isolating headphones (25dB)_

Etymotic ER-4's are 35-42 dB; I've put mine in and not heard the bus zooming
through the crossing I was about to stroll across…

~~~
falcolas
Etymotics are fantastic, but I can hear regular road noise through them with
my music turned down. Doesn't require much volume to drown it out, but it's
still possible.

ER4-XR's for me.

------
firasd
I dig it. Ever since 'smart watches' started I've felt like grown men wearing
digital watches is a bit awkward. I'd prefer more subtle things like Google
Glass or tech woven into clothing fabrics.

We definitely need to get beyond smartphones and into more ubiquitous form
factors so we don't evolve into creatures with our upper backs and necks
contorted downwards.

I always liked this UI from Mission Impossible 5:
[https://imgur.com/6H1dJ2n](https://imgur.com/6H1dJ2n)

~~~
Brakenshire
With you on the subtlety, not so much on google glass being subtle!

~~~
firasd
True! Hopefully such interfaces can eventually fit into the contact lens form
factor.

~~~
szatkus
Overheating bug would be so bad...

------
nijynot
Why get this denim jacket when you can get an iPhone and an Apple Watch?

Jacquard only puts limits on you as it's stuck on that specific denim jacket.
Apple Watch on the other hand works with any jacket. You don't even need a
jacket with Apple watch, you can wear whatever you want, whenever you want,
and it would still work compared to Jacquard which wouldn't.

~~~
anindha
The idea is that every piece of clothing one day will incorporate this.

~~~
nijynot
But why not buy a single smart watch and keep your clothes normal? I mean,
it's seems redundant to make every single piece have similar tech
functionality when you can have one watch that works with all clothes. If you
choose to have different tech in different clothes, I don't see why you don't
want to combine everything into a watch. Though there are edge cases where you
can want to split it up. But then your customer base gets much smaller.

~~~
Brakenshire
In this case, it's possible you would actually wear one jacket whenever you
were cycling, and the gestures might only be useful for that application. A
cycling jacket also probably needs to be water and wind resistant, breathe
well, and include reflective panels. The latter at least seems to be included
in this design. The idea of clothing engineered to a particular purpose is a
good one, in my opinion. For instance to use woven retroreflective material
(which reflects back bright light, but looks normal in ordinary conditions) in
a casual jacket you would use whenever you were cycling, but could also as a
general purpose jacket, rather than having to carry around and put on a lot of
separate and unwieldy reflective gear.

However, it does need to use a standard api for communication between the snap
tag, phone and jacket, and use a standard physical connector. I'm not going to
spend $350 for a jacket that can only be used with one company's proprietary
technology, and which has to be replaced when the next generation snap tag /
dongle comes out.

------
0xFFFE
And Project Soli.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0)

~~~
mediocrejoker
I don't think this was even mentioned at Google IO this year. Anyone know
what's going on with Soli?

------
nkrisc
If you're listening to music on the go, you're probably wearing headphones or
earbuds, right? Why not just build the controls into that and then you don't
need an expensive jacket to handle input?

To answer my own question: because then you can't sell an expensive jacket
that does what's already possible without it.

------
zeveb
> Jacquard enabled/You empowered

> Jacquard by Google transforms clothing. It’s an entirely new take on
> wearables that lets you do more than ever with the things that you love and
> wear every day. With Jacquard technology woven into the very fabric of your
> clothes, you can connect to your digital life instantly and effortlessly.
> With a literal brush of your cuff, you can navigate your life while living
> it.

I can't tell — is this some sort of late or early April Fool's joke? Or have I
finally just become such an old fogey that I'm yelling at those goshdurn kids
to quit sequencing their nanites on my lawn?

~~~
tyingq
This had better detail: [https://www.blog.google/topics/atap/more-just-jacket-
levis-c...](https://www.blog.google/topics/atap/more-just-jacket-levis-
commuter-trucker-jacket-powered-jacquard-technology/)

Basically, you can make various gestures on the jacket cuff to control things
like playing/pausing music, having an incoming sms read aloud to you, etc.

Maybe useful if you're riding a bike, or other situations where interaction
with a screen isn't practical?

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
But as the "tag snap" is detachable (so you can wash the jacket) it seems you
can use it on its own, or with any other piece of clothing. I have a hard time
understanding what is the advantage of this over any smartwatch.

~~~
mediocrejoker
You can't use it on any other garment, because the touch sensor is woven into
the fabric.

~~~
TeMPOraL
At this point it's getting ridiculous. They should have made a detachable
touch sensor instead. Why on Earth should I need to buy a particular piece of
clothing to get a feature that's encompassed in 1% of it?

I understand MVPs, but if you're going to actually integrate stuff into
fabric, make it something more advanced than _a single touchpad_.

------
neom
The video gives a lot more detail than the website:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ADVeNpypk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ADVeNpypk)

No clue how to pronouce Jacquard btw. :(

~~~
maximswim
French guy here : "jakar".

~~~
ghostly_s
When Anglicized, the 'd' is typically pronounced, also.

------
forkLding
Wondering about privacy issues though, seeing as google collects "location
information", isn't this just another step to surveillance, etc.

I'm kind of more interested in clothing that doesn't collect my data.

~~~
nextlevelwizard
Meh, it is going to be bluetooth connected to your smartphone so why do you
care what the jacket does?

------
addedlovely
"The Jacket is designed to withstand up to 10 washes with the Jacquard snap
tag removed but your experience may vary by usage and wash conditions"

"Note: You can wear the Jacket in the rain, but if the Jacket becomes too wet
it may not reliably detect gestures. Allow the Jacket to dry and resume using.
The snap tag is resistant to rain and splashing, but it is not fully
waterproof"

Sure it's really "Specifically tailored with the urban cyclist in
mind"...that's one wet, smelly, denim jacket after a few rides in the UK.

~~~
Mz
Yours is at least the second comment talking about it this way, but I am not
seeing the word _cyclist_ on the site. I am seeing _Jacquard currently offers
abilities designed for urban commuters._ and _Levi’s® Commuter™ Trucker
jacket._

Did I miss the part where they say cyclist?

~~~
ino
You missed the youtube video at the "learn more" page. A third of the video is
a guy riding a bike.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ADVeNpypk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ADVeNpypk)

~~~
Mz
Ah, thank you.

------
mkempe
Joseph Marie Jacquard was a genius [1]. Google should not use his name and
implicitly appropriate his invention _without proper acknowledgement._ It
bothers me that Google hijacked Jacquard's name for their own project,
especially with such emphasis on looming.

With decency, they could at a minimum have acknowledged his creations,
influence, and inspiration. Their about page [2] does not acknowledge
Jacquard's existence. Even worse, Google has trademarked the name "Jacquard",
to appropriate that name in relation to tech-infused weaving [3].

Contrast with the Pascal programming language -- Blaise Pascal was honored
explicitly when this language was named after him; the creator, Niklaus Wirth,
never dreamed of using this name without explicit tribute, since the naming
was _intended_ as a tribute.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Marie_Jacquard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Marie_Jacquard)

[2]
[https://atap.google.com/jacquard/about/](https://atap.google.com/jacquard/about/)

[3]
[https://www.trademarkia.com/jacquard-86643715.html](https://www.trademarkia.com/jacquard-86643715.html)

~~~
jfoutz
Yeah, my initial thought was some sort of automated weaving that would shape
panels with more threads for the different parts of my body. With a nice
amount of thought put into bias and joints. Some techwear companies are doing
things kind of like this, looser knit (but the same fit) around the armpits to
help ventilation on t-shirts for example.

------
abalone
I'm not seeing the use case here, and that's probably why the marketing is so
vague. There just isn't a solid one.

There's really no need for this to control music. AirPods now have touch and
voice controls built in. Smart earbuds are a much better solution for audio
control than smart clothing that controls dumb earbuds.

And if you're getting turn-by-turn directions you'll probably have your
AirPods in as well, and you can just ask Siri for updates. That's so much more
flexible -- you can ask for so much more than you could via preprogrammed
swipes.

That pretty much just leaves the use case of haptic notifications for people
who don't want to wear a watch / wristband. I think if you care about this
you'll at least put on a fitbit during your commute. And that works with all
clothing.

------
clizzin
I find the gesture choices interesting and suggestive of future directions for
interaction with wearable devices. Their help article on gestures lists the
four supported gestures with GIFs. One detail worth noting: "We recommend
using four fingers when performing gestures. Note: To avoid unintentional
activation, the jacket will not respond to gestures performed with a single
finger."

[https://support.google.com/jacquard/answer/7537511?hl=en&ref...](https://support.google.com/jacquard/answer/7537511?hl=en&ref_topic=7516780)

------
jweir
How disposable is this product?

Many products create a waste burden that is an after thought. Clothing has a
good disposal path - reuse, recycle or just throw out.

But what about wearable clothing? Since it is fashion it will have a short
life cycle.

~~~
Brakenshire
The fabric is more or less just metal threads woven into the cotton, isn't it?
Not so different from a bit of shiny styling. The tag is a normal bit of
consumer electronics like a smartwatch or an activity tracker.

------
rootedbox
For some reason wrapping myself in google.. Doesn't make me feel secure.

------
titzer
I'd be curious what the plan for recycling these fabrics is going to be.
Microfibers from artificial fabrics are really a problem in watersupplies now.
What will this bring?

------
Alex3917
If they can't even make the product good enough for people to want to buy it
without making the sensors stand out as a conversation piece, then what's the
point?

------
cha5m
This is the definition of a gimmick. How is this superior to the various
existing bluetooth-based solutions. Need to navigate without looking at a
screen? Bluetooth headphones or a bluetooth connection to your car. Need to
skip a track when listening to music? Bluetooth headphones or a bluetooth
connection to.... Need to "handle a call"? Bluetooth head-

------
xtracerx
Jacquard as the product name sounds like a Silicon Valley joke. I think they
might be getting a little out of touch at Google. :o

~~~
neil_s
A product that puts sensors in your clothes. And you feel that the NAME might
be the out-of-touch bit?

------
vkou
So, this is a smart watch that is worn on your jacket. What happens when you
step into a climate-'controlled' space, where its too warm to wear a jacket?
Or when you go out in the summer, where it's too warm to wear a jacket? Or
when you go out in the winter, where you wear a coat, instead of a jacket?

------
Sodman
A lot of hate going on in the comments here, but as somebody who doesn't
really like wearing watches - I'd take the idea of "Subtly vibrate on
text/notification received" being built into my jacket over it being built
into a smartwatch. Would love to know how much this costs though.

~~~
Terretta
It’s not built into the jacket, per se. It’s a vibrating Bluetooth dongle that
snaps on the outside of the jacket wrist.

The jacket contribution is threads to act like a touch pad.

------
johnaspden
So, er, it's a coat, with some crap sewn into it, and that crap has something
to do with telephones?

------
IanDrake
When you can't tell the difference between a joke and reality it can't be
good.

In this case, I guess this is a real thing, but reading the website it seems
like it could just as easily be a joke.

Kinda like the Antifa spoof pages on Facebook, which were hilarious if you
knew what they were spoofs.

------
jtraffic
This comes to mind: [https://hackernoon.com/for-the-love-of-god-please-tell-
me-wh...](https://hackernoon.com/for-the-love-of-god-please-tell-me-what-your-
company-does-c2f0b835ab92)

------
mankash666
Looking at their video for the jacket, all the gesturing was done around the
wrist area, where my Android wear watch already sits.

They need a "killer" use case for this, but everyday jacket wearing folks can
pass on this without missing much

------
didip
If there is 1 high tech feature that I want from a clothing (I am willing to
ignore everything else) is the ability to charge all of our gadgets
wirelessly.

I don’t care about controlling music player from my shirt, my phone already
dies that.

------
lerie82
So basically after reading the comments I should make my own sensor people can
hold in their hands or pin to their sleeves then market it? Who wears Jean
jackets? Lol

------
majani
What problem is this solving?

------
KirinDave
So the exact same haptics tricks that homebrew folks have been using for
years, but with more micronization?

Okay. Sure. But they'd better not cut corners in the security of the
handshaking and integration or someone's going to be able to hack your pants
and make them buzz forever.

------
m0llusk
Couple this with Nest style temperature control and I'm sold.

------
maxerickson
Someone send one to Scoble.

------
strebler
Does this mean I'm going to have to charge my clothing now too?

------
tedwasright
Soy in a jacket.

Now you can wear google.

------
bhewes
'Rainbows End' slowly coming to life!

------
neves
Can I put it in the water machine?

------
zghst
Too forward thinking

~~~
alexasmyths
Sideways thinking.

What we might want from clothing:

\+ Self cleaning \+ No need to iron but still feels like cotton, not plastic
\+ Synthetics that are breathable like cotton \+ Cheaper \+ Can change
colour/styles

------
neves
Price, anyone?

------
45h34jh53k4j
[http://www.levi.com/US/en_US/category/men/collections/levi-c...](http://www.levi.com/US/en_US/category/men/collections/levi-
collections-commuter) Why is this only in skinny hipster sizes like Slim Fit
Levi's 511s.

Damn you malnourished SF hipsters (I guess you cant afford to eat with Bay
Area prices, also you keep buying new phones instead of food).

~~~
atomical
You must be a bodybuilder.

~~~
konart
You don't have to be a bodybuilder to have a normal constitution (as in non-
slim).

