Jacquard by Google

Jacquard by Google “transforms clothing” by taking an entirely “new take on wearables that lets you do more than ever with the things that you love and wear every day.” The jacket gives you the ability to take calls, play music, and navigate all with a “brush of your cuff.” Today, it is implemented in the Levi’s® Commuter™ Trucker jacket, but Google plans to implement the technology in other pieces of clothing.

Connection

I wanted to look at Jacquard, because of its ability to allow interactions to occur in a more ambient way. Jacquard does not add a device, instead interactions are built into an object a user would already have otherwise. It is interesting to think about this in the context of a partner or couple (i.e. just what objects do partners and couples already have that play a significant role into their relationships that could be embedded with an intelligence to improve their quality of conversation).

Questions

• How does the limited interactions of the Levi’s Commuter Jacket effect a user? Do they end up just using the jacket for a small subset of its possible functionality or do users continue to explore the functionality possible over a long period of time?