Google Announces Samsonite Partnership to Bring Its Jacquard Wearable Platform to Backpacks
Smart backpacks the latest in Google's attempt at "ambient computing," after its earlier partnership with Levi's.
Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division has announced a partnership with Samsonite to bring more smart fabric products, built around its Jacquard platform, to life: the Konnect-I Backpack Slim and Standard.
Announced in 2015 and launched onto the open market in 2017, Jacquard — named for the Jacquard machine, a device fitted to looms to automate the production of complex patterns and generally considered a precursor technology to the modern programmable computer - is part of what Google describes as the vision of "ambient computing — providing digital experiences through everyday things around you."
The first products to launch with Jacquard technology were jackets from Levi's, which allowed the wearer to interact with their smartphone by touching the cuff of the garment — a screen-free extension of the technologies Google has been developing for years.
Now, Google is integrating the same technology — the Jacquard Tag — into backpacks from Samsonite. "While they might look like regular backpacks," Ivan Poupyrev, director of engineering at Google ATAP, explains, "the left strap unlocks tons of capabilities."
"Using your Jacquard app, you can customize what gestures control which actions—for instance, you can program Jacquard to deliver call and text notifications, trigger a selfie, control your music or prompt Google Assistant to share the latest news. For an added level of interaction, the LED light on your left strap will light up according to the alerts you've set."
"This is only the beginning for the Jacquard platform," Poupyrev claims, despite the core technology having changed little over the last few years, "and thanks to updates, you can expect your Jacquard Tag gear to get better over time. Just like Google wants to make the world's information universally accessible and useful, we at Jacquard want to help people access information through everyday items and natural movements."
More information on the project, and the Samsonite backpacks themselves, can be found on the Google blog.