谷歌攜手Levi's 打造智慧服飾 智慧生活近在眼前 | Google and Levi’s are teaming up to make computerized pants

谷歌攜手Levi's 打造智慧服飾 智慧生活近在眼前

《拉美郵報》報導，科技巨擘谷歌 (Google)(GOOG-US) 與牛仔褲業者 Levi's (Levi Strauss) 合作，共同打造智慧服飾。

網站 The Next Digit 報導，在 2015 年開發者大會上，谷歌先進科技與計劃部門 (ATAP) 宣布，將與 Levi's 合作打造「緹花計畫」布料。攜手發明這款布料目的在於，藉由觸控功能，使服飾能夠與人類生活互動。比方說，藉由「滑動」與「點擊」，智慧服飾就能與智慧型手機連結，進而操作各種功能。傳簡訊與電話撥接等功能都包含其中。

谷歌 ATAP 部門主管 Ivan Poupyrev 說，要執行「緹花計畫」，Levi's 是不二人選。

「緹花計畫」是由特別的紗，織成各種不同款式的布料。「緹花計畫」所產出的布料能與其它布料一起搭配，根據設計師的巧思，製造出色彩繽紛的服飾。導電紗線能裝置在局部服飾上，也能遍佈整件服飾。設計師將觸控功能，裝置在西裝、洋裝以及地毯上。這些導電紗將與細小的電子迴路連結，藉由運算法的推演，辨認使用者的手勢，進而產生指令。

設計電子雜誌 GizMag 表示，此款搭載觸控感應的緹花紗，運用細小金屬合金搭配棉花或是蠶絲製成。在 2015 年谷歌的開發者大會上，谷歌人員介紹如何使用布料控制光線。「點擊」服飾，就能開燈或關燈。「滑動」服飾，就能調整燈光的明暗與顏色。谷歌預計結合穿戴服飾與任何可能連結的生活物件。

谷歌 ATAP 部門 Emre Karagozler 說，「我們正在創造互動式紡織品。」Karagozler 在谷歌人員示範如何藉由觸控服飾，控製燈光與電腦螢幕的同時說，「我們將導電紗線紡入布料中。此款布料具有伸縮性、還可以水洗。」

Levi's 全球產品創新部門長 Paul Dillinger 說，「生活在高度數位化的時代，人們想要反璞歸真，重回手動操作的感覺，但生活週遭依舊充滿著許多科技產品。谷歌與 Levi's 正在做的『緹花計畫』，就是要傳達科技的全新使用價值，讓使用者瞭解與感受服飾也是有情感的，且具有多重功能。」

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【新聞來源：台灣紡拓會】

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Google and Levi’s are teaming up to make computerized pants

There have been words — so, so many words! — written about all of the Amazing Mind-Blowing Futuristic Stuff being announced by Google at its annual I/O developer conference. And, frankly, lots of it feels fairly small-ball — the kind of technological catch-up and incremental innovation that gets tech bloggers excited, but doesn’t really mean much to normal people.

But today, we got some true futurism: computerized pants.

This morning, Google announced that it is teaming up with Levi’s to make jeans with conductive fabric — which could eventually allow wearers to use their legs as touchscreens — swiping their thigh, say, to accept a phone call.

The computerized pants project, which came out of Google’s secretive ATAP lab, headed by a former DARPA research scientist, is code-named “Project Jacquard,” after Joseph Marie Jacquard, the inventor of the power loom. Wired describes it as an attempt to “bring conductive yarns to every garment and fabric on earth, and then to integrate touch sensors, haptic feedback, and more right into your jeans, car seats, curtains, everything.” And here’s how it’ll work:

Working with one of Japan’s many boutique textile manufacturers, Poupyrev and the Jacquard team designed yarns based on a metallic alloy whose precise makeup he won’t share … They discovered that by tightly weaving the conductive thread into other fabrics, they were having a hard time connecting the electronics necessary to power and capture data from the yarn. So after a few revisions, they created a two-layer system that allows you to embed electronics in the middle, like the meat in a sandwich. That makes it easy to connect electronics to the connective threads themselves, without getting in the way of what the designers want to do.

As Apple is doing with its Watch, Google and Levi’s are marketing computerized pants as a way to stay connected to your digital life without having to pull out your phone. “If there’s a chance to enable the clothes that we already love to help us facilitiate access to the best and most necessary of this digital world while maintaining eye contact with the person we’re eating dinner with, this is a real value,” Paul Dillinger of Levi Strauss said at the I/O conference, according to the Verge. (How your fellow diners will react to you furiously swiping at your thighs under the table, we’re not sure.)

It’s not clear when you’ll be able to pick up a pair of touchscreen jeans. Project Jacquard is still very much in the prototype stage, and according to Wired, Google and Levi’s are “still trying to figure out the right application for the tech.” But make no mistake: the digital revolution is coming for your pants.

Original Article: Fusion.net