Google’s Project Jacquard is Back with Yves Saint Laurent Backpack

Google’s touch-sensitive fabric technology Project Jacquard is back with...

Image: Google

Google’s touch-sensitive fabric technology Project Jacquard is back with a new product – the Cit-E smart backpack – a touch-sensitive shoulder strap for controlling a connected smartphone. Built in collaboration with fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, the Cit-E backpack allows the user to control things using four gestures on the touch-sensitive area on the front of the left shoulder strap: swipe up, swipe down, double tap, and covering it up.

Read more Artificial Intelligence and Google’s Radar Technologies to Noninvasively Measure Glucose Levels

Google first debuted Project Jacquard, a smart fabric initiative to create gesture and tap-connected wearables without screens, back in 2015, reports CNet.

In 2017, Commuter X jacket debuted. It’s a Google-powered smart denim jacket that lets users control music and phone functions just by touching the fabric.

Now, the search engine giant is planning to build a bigger wave of Jacquard products, starting with this smart backpack. The discreet Jacquard Tag connects your physical things to digital services and information. It’s connected via Bluetooth and communicates with the Jacquard app.

Image: Google

You can personalize your things by selecting the Abilities you want to use. The more Jacquard services are added, the more your things become uniquely yours.

“Our ambition is simple: to make life easier. By staying connected to your digital world, your things can do so much more. Skip a song by swiping your sleeve. Take a picture by tapping on a shoulder strap. Get reminded about the phone you left behind with a blink of light or a haptic buzz on your cuff,” says Google.

Read more Cognoa Licenses Google Glass-based AI Technology for Children with Autism

Google’s Soli – a new sensing technology that uses miniature radar to detect touchless gesture interactions – hasn't debuted in any product yet. But the two platforms could eventually fit together down the road. “It's in the realm of possibilities, we're thinking about it all the time,” Ivan Poupyrev, Google’s technical projects lead told CNet’s Scott Stein. “I don't know how much speculation I'm allowed.”

The Cit-E backpack is available to preorder from Yves Saint Laurent’s website for US $877.

Sam Draper
September 30, 2019

Innovation of the Month

Do you want to discover more, visit the website
Visit Website

Other news

Energous Wins FCC Certification of GaN-Based WattUp Near Field Wireless Charging Transmitters

Transmitter is designed to deliver higher power, enabling fast charging for wearables and more.

AI Health Tech Firm Healx Raises $56 Million in Series B as It Looks to Accelerate Rare Disease Treatments

Healx, an UK-based health tech firm that specializes in treatments for rare diseases, has...

Safeguarding Trade Secrets Around Medical Wearables

One of the biggest challenges faced by companies in the medtech industry is to protect the trade...

September 2022: Oopsie Heroes by Lifesense Group

New and innovative bedwetting alarm for kids!
Discover more