Google's band of research pirates known as ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) is striving to make seamless wearable interaction..by utilizing the seams of your clothes with Project Jacquard.
One of many projects that ATAP presented at Google IO 2015, Project Jacquard is all about using interactive garments to simplify daily life. By decoupling the interface from a screen to everyday gestures, Google wants to make it easier to live your life with its tech without staring into a screen.
Google's goal is also to make it simple for the textile industry to join the smart garment game. During the keynote, ATAP announced that Levi Strauss has become Google's first official partner for Project Jacquard.
Project Soli and Project Abacus
Another project to make wearable interface a bit less frustrating is Project Soli. The goal of Soli is to make interacting with a wearable feel natural and less restrictive. According to Google's research, wearable touchscreen size is at the threshold of what humans can physically handle interacting with.
To remedy this issue, Soli utilizes a revolutionary "gesture radar" chip to pick up a variety of natural hand motions, such as scrolling on a virtual screen, turning a wheel, and pinch zooming. The goal of both Project Soli and Jacquard is to make wearable user interface possible with easy broad gestures.
Google is also working on a project to ditch passwords, called Project Abacus. This will abandon the password and pin number verification of yesteryear and convert to a multi-modal verification system that analyses not just what you type/say, but how you do it. Because, to quote ATAP keynote speaker Regina Dugan, "Passwords suck".
- More details to come from Google IO 2015
