In order to manipulate electronic products by hand, it is usually necessary to press a button or operate a touch panel. However, Google’s newly developed e-Textile allows easy and intuitive operation such as picking up speaker and headphone cables to play music or twisting the cable to adjust the volume.
For example, if you have a smart speaker with a cable connected, you can play music from the speaker by pressing the cable firmly with your hand or adjust the volume by twisting the cable. If you pinch during music playback, it pauses, and if you take the same action again, the music plays. If you pull the extension cable from the speaker, the music being played changes to another song. If you tap the cable lightly with your palm, you can quickly flip through the music.
Speakers aren’t the only ones that can be manipulated. The screen scrolls up and down by twisting the cable hanging left and right in front of the PC monitor. When you pinch the cable, the link opens like a mouse click. This task is a function that eight sensors built into the cable detect and provide finger contact or cable twist. There are six types of actions that can be input: twist, slide, and pinch. In addition, since four types of manipulations are possible depending on the direction or speed of motion with only gestures, there are various ways to actually use them.
The job recognition accuracy averages 93.8%, but Google says it can make a difference because users usually adjust their jobs to get more desired results. If you get used to it, you can reduce the number of mistakes in operation. Google is already developing prototypes such as an e-fiber USB cable that connects a smartphone and headphones, a hood strap that allows you to operate a music player while wearing it, and a cable for working with smart speakers. It is said that in the future, it plans to correct such things as preventing malfunctions when touched incorrectly. Related information can be found here .