Project Overview
Project Jacquard makes it possible to weave touch and gesture interactivity into any textile using standard, industrial looms. Everyday objects such as clothes and furniture can be transformed into interactive surfaces.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Project Brief
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.
Since arriving in the Bay Area during the Gold Rush, Levi's has become a cultural icon known for it's design of fashionable and functional garments. It has built this reputation over the last 150 years by continually designing and creating products that meet a consumer need – from the 1800s when they first crafted jeans for miners to the 2000s when they introduced the Commuter line built for today’s urban cyclist. Now this tradition of innovation is continued with Jacquard.
Project Innovation/Need
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 miniaturized electronics capture touch interactions, and various gestures can be inferred using machine-learning algorithms.
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.
Jacquard components are cost-efficient to produce, and the yarns and fabrics can be manufactured with standard equipment used in mills around the world.
One loom can generate as many different textile designs as there are people on the planet. Now that same loom can also weave in interactivity.
Design Challenge
Connected clothes offer new possibilities for interacting with services, devices, and environments. These interactions can be reconfigured at any time.
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.
Developers will be able to connect existing apps and services to Jacquard-enabled clothes and create new features specifically for the platform. We are also developing custom connectors, electronic components, communication protocols, and an ecosystem of simple applications and cloud services.
Sustainability
Product Design - Personal Use
This award celebrates creative and innovative design for either a component or overall product. Consideration given to aspects that relate to human usage, aesthetics, selection of components and materials, and the resolution of assembly, manufacturing and the overall function.
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