Author: Rebecca

This new Advanced Technology and Projects group wants wearables to be somewhat like fabric touchscreens.

Google is testing out a whole new direction for its wearable technology through the manufacture of some very high-tech fabrics that could be incorporated into wearables that could be worn as clothing.

This effort is being made by the company’s Project Soli and Project Jacquard teams in its new projects group.

They are a part of the Google Advanced Technology and Projects Group. Those two projects, which actually weave the electronics right into fabrics that can be worn as a combination of clothing and wearable technology, and that use a gesture-based interface, were first unveiled in San Francisco at the Google I/O developer event on Friday. By bringing those two projects together, the result has been what could somewhat be described as a fabric that functions a bit like a touchscreen.

Coming in contact with this wearable technology in various ways would activate it like a touchscreen.

There are different ways of stroking over the tech fabric, which would signal different events to take place. One could, for example, make a call over a smartphone, while another might turn the lights on in a room. Various types of contact with the patch of technology woven fabric would make it possible to accomplish an array of different types of goals.

In order to get in on the potential for this wearable tech, Levi Strauss & Co. has already entered into a partnership deal with Google.

Project Jacquard, itself, brings two different types of technologies together. The first is to weave together the conductive threads and work them into a patch of cloth. The second is to create an electronics package that would function with those threads in order to be able to read what they have sensed, so that it can be relayed into a type of signal that could be understood by a computer.

This wearable technology project was named after the first mechanical loom in history that was designed to be able to create complex fabric styles and patterns (one example of what it could do was brocades).

As the focus shifts to a multi device experience the search engine giant is making a number of considerable discoveries.

Mobile ads are a relatively recent component of the overall strategy at Google and, following its recent shift to focus on being more friendly to smartphones and tablets, and the technology giant has been developing a massive amount of insight about this advertising channel, particularly since “mobile-geddon”.

This insight seems to be guiding the company well, according to its senior vice president of ads and commerce.

That individual, Sridhar Ramaswamy, has explained that the company is handing its move to a multi device experience well. He has pointed out that selling mobile ads to advertisers could be more challenging when the majority of those advertisements end up on mobile devices, because they have screens that are smaller than standard desktops and laptops. Marketers hesitate because many consumers find it to be a hassle, or not adequately secure to follow an ad to the point that they will actually make a purchase.

However, Google is working hard to make sure that it can halt the slipping prices of its mobile ads.

The Wall Street Journal recently released a report that underscored Google’s efforts to improve the value of its advertising options. It has found that it can greatly benefit from the recent shift in the mobile technology toward the use of devices with larger screens.

Two of the devices that have effectively shown that consumers are interested in smartphones and mobile devices that have larger screens include the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which were launched by Apple, last fall. Similarly, the flagship Google smartphone that was recently released, the Nexus 6, features a large 5.9 inch screen.

While addressing the topic of mobile ads, Ramaswamy said that “As phones get bigger the space issue becomes less challenging.” He added that “This is essentially a tablet. People’s ability to navigate sites and fill out forms and such goes up tremendously,” as he withdrew his own Nexus 6 device to illustrate the point that he was making. These larger screen size trends, combined with the new data storage at Google, described in another Wall Street Journal report, indicate that the company is making every effort to overcome the decreasing willingness of marketers to pay for advertising on mobile screens.