Tag: google

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).

Google will overhaul its Wallet service and launch Android Pay in the near future

The battle for mobile payments supremacy is heating up, and Google plans to launch a new service that will establish it as a leader. The company plans to overhaul its troubled Wallet platform, which has struggled to gain traction among consumers in recent years. Google has plans to launch a new service called Android Pay, which will allow merchants to accept payments from credit cards as well as mobile applications.

Android Pay aims to make physical mobile payments possible in stores

Android Pay is designed to be a standalone mobile payments solution and will not replace Google Wallet. The Wallet application will receive special attention, making it more attractive to consumers that are interested in mobile payments. The app is being re-designed as a peer-to-peer platform, which will also allow consumers to send money to one another. They will still be able to use the platform to make payments to merchants that accept Google Wallet, of course.

Demand for mobile payment support in physical stores is rising quickly

Android Pay may become Google’s more favored mobile payments solution, as it is designed with brick-and-mortar stores in mind. Demand for mobile payment support in physical stores is on the rise, and companies like Google want to accommodate this demand by providing new services that make these payments more convenient. In this way, Android Pay will perform in much the same way that other mobile payments platforms do.

Google will face tough competition in the mobile payments space

Though Google has ambitious plans for mobile payments, the company will be faced with intense competition coming from others. Samsung is one of these companies. Later this year, Samsung plans to launch its own mobile payments service, called Samsung Pay. This service will provide consumers with a way to make purchases in physical stores using their mobile devices. Apple also plans to improve its own mobile payments service, introducing a loyalty program and making improvements to its already considerable security features.