Project Jacquard is a new technology developed by Google that allows touch and gesture interactivity to be woven into textiles using standard industrial looms. This allows everyday objects like clothes and furniture to become interactive surfaces. The technology uses specialized conductive yarn that can be woven invisibly and connects to electronics. Developers will be able to connect apps and services to Jacquard-enabled clothes and textiles.

1. PROJECT JACQUARD

2. ABSTRACT
• Project Jacquard is a new Interfacing Technology that 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.
• These interactions can be reconfigured at any time.
• Developers will be able to connect existing apps and services to Jacquard-
enabled clothes .
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3. INTRODUCTION
• R&D by Google ATAP(Advanced Technology and
Projects Group)
• Project team lead by Ivan Poupyrev
• In partnership with Levi Strauss & Co
• Project Jacquard was announced at Google I/O 2015
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4. WHAT IS PROJECT JACQUARD…?
• A platform for embedding sensors & devices in fabrics in ways that seem
natural and comfortable.
• Users can provide input to a mobile phone by touching or stroking the
garment in a designated location.
• Users can receive alerts through vibrations, sounds, or lights in the
garments.
• Novel conductive yarns designed to be woven entirely invisible without
affecting the look and feel of the fabric.
• Can be designed to a variety of colors and textures with designers’ needs.
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5. BACKGROUND & RELATED WORK
• An early exploration of interactivity to clothing using conductive yarns
was Musical Jacket developed in 1998 by Margaret Orth at MIT Media
Lab.
• No significant breakthroughs at attempts to design interactive conductive
yarns for weaving into textiles at industrial scale.
CHALLENGES
Battery requirements are critical.
Electronics must be flexible and able to survive washing, drying, ironing,
and dry cleaning.
Combining Hard Electronics and Soft Textiles.
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6. What’s different in Project Jacquard…?
Conductive yarn can be woven into textiles using standard looms,
inexpensively and at scale.
Woven textile structures withstand harsh and destructive processes
of manufacturing.
Jacquard textiles can withstand home washing, ironing and dry
cleaning cycles.
Electronics & Textiles combined using simple soldering process.
Jacquard electronic system is simple, modular and efficient.
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7. PROJECT JACQUARD – What’s for the User…
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8. PROJECT JACQUARD
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Figure 1. Project Jacquard manufacturing flow chart.

9. JACQUARD YARN
The core technology for developing interactive textiles.
Jacquard yarn specifications
Conventional look and feel
Multiple colors, thicknesses, and materials
Electrical conductivity
Strength, temperature, chemical resistance
Electronics interconnectivity
Reliability & Safety
Cost and manufacturing at scale
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Figure 2. Jacquard yarns are indistinguishable
from normal yarns

10. JACQUARD YARN ENGINEERING
• Two structural elements – Silk & Conductive Metal Wires.
• The core of the yarn – Several strands of highly conductive thin metal
wires braided with 2 strands of silk.
• This core structure is then over-braided for several reasons.
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Figure 3. Jacquard yarn structure.

11. JACQUARD WEAVING & TEXTILES
• Practically any texture, image, or visual pattern can be woven.
• The textile can be rigid or stretchable, flat or woven with depth,
bumpy, plush, or with ridges.
• The interactivity reside in limited locations defined by the needs of
the application.
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Figure 4. Jacquard Textiles: (a) Plain interactive (b) 3D Interactive patches and floats (c) Colors patterns(d) Shape of patches

12. CONNECTIVITY TO ELECTRONICS
• The conductive yarn forms a localized, square conductive area, then passes
through the fabric, where it floats.
• Floating Jacquard yarns is connected to electrical interposers by soldering.
• It is relatively trivial to connect the interposer to any other electronic
device.
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Figure 5: a) floating yarns b) connecting to interposer

13. JACQUARD ELECTRONICS
 The sensing module
has a built-in gesture
recognition capability
self-capacitance principle
 The processing module
sends gesture or touch
location to mobile phone
uses Bluetooth 4.0
 The power module
sleep & wake-up modes
small, modular, efficient
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Figure 6: Electronics and system configuration

14. PROJECT JACQUARD – Working…
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Figure 7: Electronics and application configuration
Electronics are shown both inside of and without
housings and the interposer encapsulation is not shown
Figure 8. The Jacquard data-logging application
including gesture/function matching; data visualization;
data recording.

15. Project Jacquard - A Platform not a Product
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Figure 9. The role of Jacquard Platform in the Interactive system.

16. Jacquard - Usability Evaluation
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• After 12,000 swipes, gesture recognition rate ->95.12%
• No visible damage to the fabric.
Figure 11: Possible locations of the woven interactive areasFigure 10. Gesture reliability, wear and tear test. The
robotic arm scans interactive area with 2.037 N of
pressure.

17. PROJECT JACQUARD - Applications
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Figure 10. Project Jacquard envisions seamless & fluid integration of interactivity woven into everyday objects and environments.

18. Conclusion
• Project Jacquard allows weaving interactive textiles at scale.
• It’s a possibility that the current work will inspire research in new forms of
materials and integration of computation into the everyday objects and
environments.
• Brings the vision of invisible seamless computing one step closer to the
reality.
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19. References
1. Leah Buechley, Mike Eisenberg, Jaime Catchen, and Ali Crockett. 2008.The
LilyPad Arduino: Using computational textiles to investigate engagement,
aesthetics, and diversity in computer science education. In CHI ’08, 423–432.
2. Leah Buechley, Kanjun Qui, and Sonja De Boer. 2013.Sew Electric: A collection of
projects that combine fabric, electronics, and programming, HLT Press.
3. Diana Marculescu, et al.(2003). Electronic textiles: Aplatform for pervasive
computing. Proceedings of the IEEE, 91(12), 1995-2018.
4. Lina M. Castano and Alison B. Flatau. 2014. Smart
fabric sensors and e-textile technologies: a review. Smart
Mater. Struct. 23, 5 (May 2014), 053001.
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