Google's coolest new gadget is not a phone or a speaker, but a $350, smart, connected jacket

The long-awaited Google-Levi’s Project Jacquard commuter jacket is finally here. Yes, that’s right, it’s a jacket. If you haven’t heard of it, Google had announced Project Jacquard at Google I/O last year. The idea was that conductive fibres would be woven into fabric, including denim, and then a combination of machine learning and AI would be used to develop gestures that you’ll be able to use in real life. Essentially, your clothes will be turned into a massive touch screen.

These fibres can be manufactured at scale, just like thread, and can be used to create any sort of circuit diagram of your choosing. Working with Google, Levi’s announced the Commuter Collection, which will eventually include a number of Project jacquard-based clothing. In the first demo of the jacket, a film shows off a piece of clothing that can give you directions while biking, give you notifications of a call, work like some kind of ‘Google Now on Tap’ accessory and more. Hardware that supports haptic feedback has been integrated into the design. But words can’t do it justice. The video below should explain things very nicely.

Levi’s and Google are still developing new sensors, accessories and designs for this new collection of smart, connected clothing. The Commuter Jacket itself is now on sale, yours for $350 (around Rs 23,000).