Google’s experimental ‘smart braid’ headphone wire controls music with a squeeze

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  • POSTED ON: May 20, 2020

Google has a weird taste, and we been knew.

Whether it was the touch-sensitive jean jacket or the radar controls in smartphones, Google has always distinguished itself from the other tech giants. Its latest update is the “I/O braid” which is a textile UI that allows users to control electronics by pinching, patting, squeezing or simply swiping the fabric cord.

The braid utilizes the helical sensing matrix or HSM to follow command punched in by users. A series of yarns are woven into the braid that permits identification when touched by a hand along with 360 degrees of visibility. Visual feedback is also provided through Fiber optic strings.

Google has provided a number of ways how this “research project” could be integrated into user electronics. For example, you can utilize it to add touch controls to the power cord of the speaker to your headphones. You can also create a hoodie with touch-sensitive drawstrings which permits connection to the phone and controls music.

Google has collected data from volunteers to differentiate between the numerous touch types. These volunteers were asked to interact with the smart braid.

Google also trained a machine to distinguish between a number of gestures like swiping, pinching, squeezing and twisting.

It really is a good opening as the accuracy of these gestures stands at 94 percent. However, one problem that could be a challenge to defeat is that of the integration as there are many chances of accidental commands.

Nevertheless, let’s just wait and see how this latest feature works out for Google.

Updated May 20, 2020
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