Tech giant Google is planning to make clothes act like touchscreens by weaving conductive yarns into textiles.
Project Jacquard by Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) lab is developing smart yarn that is both touch-sensitive and strong enough to be woven into practically any piece of clothing.
The touch-sensitive yarn contains thin, metallic alloys combined with standard yarn from materials like cotton or silk.
Jacquard yarns can either have prominent stitching - isolated patterns that make it clear to the wearer which part of their shirt doubles as a controller - or be woven seamlessly into the textile as a whole.
"Using conductive yarns, bespoke touch and gesture-sensitive areas can be woven at precise locations, anywhere on the textile. Alternatively, sensor grids can be woven throughout the textile, creating large, interactive surfaces," Google said on the project website.
"The complementary components are engineered to be as discreet as possible. We developed innovative techniques to attach the conductive yarns to connectors and tiny circuits, no larger than the button on a jacket.
"These miniaturised electronics capture touch interactions, and various gestures can be inferred using machine-learning algorithms," Google said.
Captured touch and gesture data is wirelessly transmitted to mobile phones or other devices to control a wide range of functions, connecting the user to online services, apps, or phone features.
In a demonstration, Google has used touch-sensitive fabric to control Philips' Hue lights, 'Gizmag' reported.
A quick tap of the clothing turned the lights on and off, a swipe to the right scrolled through different colour settings and swipes up and down changed the brightness.
"Jacquard is a blank canvas for the fashion industry. Designers can use it as they would any fabric, adding new layers of functionality to their designs, without having to learn about electronics," Google said.
