Introducing Jacquard
A brief history of Google Jacquard, The Jacket, and E-textiles
Interweaving Technology into the Fabric of Life
Picture yourself commuting to work in a Hands Free state like Georgia. Your phone starts to ring, but you risk the dangers of distraction by interacting with the device or even glancing at the screen. Imagine that you have the ability to simply swipe across the sleeve of your jacket to answer the call. This is one of many use cases in which technology can be literally interwoven into our daily lives. Project Jacquard has advanced Mark Weiser’s vision of weaving computers into the “fabric of everyday life” through some innovative yarn and a jean jacket.
E-Broidery before Project Jacquard
Post and Orth of the MIT Media Lab introduced the concept of smart fabric by embedding micro-controllers into fabric and soldering electronic components onto it. This seamless mesh of computing and textiles occurred two years before Weiser’s proposed vision that failed to explicitly mention smart textiles. Post and Orth later exposed the concept of “e-broidery” by using fabrics embroidered with conductive thread to collect input for micro-controlled circuits. This led to the creation of fabric widgets mimicking GUI widgets, like rocker switches and joggers, and bringing tangibility to virtual actions such as scrolling or menu navigation. E-textiles grew more accessible with the LilyPad by Buechley et. al. The e-textile kit allowed beginners to explore wearables and became commercially available to use in educational contexts. Though e-broidery existed as a popular topic among researchers, wearable developers questioned how washing garments may affect functionality and scalability. Moreover, embroidery of conductive yarn into fabric tended to be expensive, lacked seamlessness, and failed to withstand standard manufacturing processes.
Introducing Project Jacquard
In 2014, Google ATAP developers began developing a conductive yarn that could be woven into textiles reliably, inexpensively, and at scale. Poupyrev et. al engineered a yarn that included a highly conductive twisted core braided with two strands of silk for structural integrity. Further braiding allowed for protection of the core and a natural fabric feel.
Rather than using embroidery or stitching, they proposed a two-dimensional topology of conductive yarns woven into materials of varying textures and colors. As a result, the e-textile would maintain an aesthetic look as well as withstand industrial manufacturing processes such as soldering and washing.
Additionally, the arrangement of yarn into arrays allowed for a simpler, modular format to connect with electronics.*
Two Partners One Jacket
In 2015 Google partnered with Levi’s and by 2017 released the first commercially available e-textile: The Levi’s Commuter X Jacquard. The jacket leveraged the capacitive touch sensing capabilities of the Jacquard thread, implementing gesture recognition in the jacket cuff. Using a Bluetooth-enabled tag plugged into the cuff, the gestures interface with a phone and thus provide such functionality as swiping your hand across your sleeve to answer a phone call.
Below is a short video depicting weaving, singeing, washing, testing and other processes involved in manufacturing the smart jacket.
*For more details on the hardware behind Project Jacquard check out these resources:
Project Jacquard: Interactive Digital Textiles at Scale
Deconstructing the Levi’s Jacquard Commuter Jacket
Georgia Tech’s E-Textile Hacking Team is always looking to collaborate with engineers and researchers across industry and academia. If you are enthusiastic about new forms of human computer interactions like this one or interested in our work on the Jacquard E-textile, please reach out!
