So I was looking at clothes, and I stumbled upon this "smart jacket" made by Levi's and Google. It features a tab attached to the cuff of the sleeve that connects via bluetooth to your smartphone. Using simple gestures like double tapping your sleeve, you can hear notifications, answer calls, play music, take pictures on your phone's camera, etc. The first thing that went through my mind when I saw this jacket was, "Wow, this would make such a cool blog post on The Hitchhiker's Guide to National Affairs! It's totally not something you'd overhear in a conversation between two 30 year old men riding the Caltrain from San Francisco to Palo Alto, sporting cycling shoes and one pant leg practically (yet stylishly) rolled up so it remains dirt-free as they depart the train and cycle to the headquarters of their employments, as software engineers."
In my humble opinion, there are real benefits of this jacket, such as being able to change music without taking out my phone. The police can't pull me over for hitting my jacket. Moreover, no one will notice as I whisper into my left jacket cuff, "hey google, what are the three branches of government" during the AP test.
I'm not actually making fun of the smart jacket; it's an impressive technological development. I think it's the part of an impending and inevitable wave of wearable technology. Smart watches, smart glasses, it only make sense articles of clothing are next.
Do you think "smart clothing" helps us disconnect from the online world, or only further traps us within its enthralling webs? In the near future, do you see yourself wearing smart clothing?
4 comments:
I think this is a cool idea, putting technology into clothing. But, I see no purpose to it. This jacket, for example, can connect to your phone and act as an extension of your phone, like an Apple Watch… but I guess cheaper? Sure, it can be more convenient to use but how can you wash your clothing? I’m sure it costs a lot to make the technology waterproof. I feel like people are becoming more and more dependent on technology, which is not good. Making your clothing help you with your phone is just pointless, in my opinion. It would definitely make it easier to cheat on tests and stuff but when we walk into the test rooms, doesn’t that mean they will need to inspect every piece of clothing to see if there’s a piece of technology in it to aid us? I’m not sure if I will ever wear smart clothing, we’ll see. Technology if advancing, but not always in the best ways.
While I always enjoy reading about new technology related to the internet of things, I'm not particularly impressed by this invention. Airpods or other headphones are already capable of most of the audio-related features- not to mention you'd need headphones anyway for the smart jacket to play sound. I personally feel like the jacket is just another way to feel like you're immersed in technology (for example, now you can prop your phone up on a convenient ledge and tap your jacket cuff to take a photo, hoping your phone doesn't fall down in the process, instead of just asking the nearest person to take a photo of you. That being said, I'm sure technology will continue to improve, and I'm curious to see when there will be a real breakthrough.
I love this post Jossie, I was laughing so hard my dog left the room.
Nonetheless, I would have to say that I think "smart clothing" would be another step towards fully immersing ourselves in the virtual world technology offers us. I personally am already concerned about just having a phone (i'M sUcH a gAmEr), and think that the unnecessary additions that are so available pull us away from the real world. I mean, when do you see someone fully immersed in the world around them, without having in headphones or taking a picture? It is sad to me, because I really try to see the natural beauty of the world rather than the artificial realities that are so accessible now. I don't think I would wear smart clothing, just because I imagine it would be expensive and I'm kind of super cheap so...
It’s interesting to see the lengths technology companies will go to fully integrate into our lives (can’t wait for them to know all the things they don’t already know about me). Of course in these early stages I don’t see anything substantial coming out of this new hybrid industry; however, who’s to say that in 2027 or something all of our clothes will have some smart features involved. In my opinion, I believe that the goal for these companies is to replace the phone with smart wearable tech as you mentioned in your post. I think things like smart watches, coupled by the introduction of AR smart glasses will make the phone a trivial device (similar to what happened with the iPod). The implications of augmented reality as it pertains to our future is particularly interesting. Already we are seeing companies experiment with this technology (Ikea with their furniture app, and games like Minecraft). It’s sad to see most of this innovation propagating under the same houses (Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon). Perhaps a government mandate forcing separation (similar to what happened to Standard Oil in the 1900s) of these giant conglomerates will solve the issue :) (though I suspect they won’t willingly sign off to this without a fight).
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