Back in 2017, Google launched an innovative project to make touch-sensitive fabrics. Dubbed as Project Jacquard, the Mountain View-based tech giant’s smart fabric was integrated into Levi’s Trucker Jacket, which launched earlier last year. Now, Google has collaborated with Samsonite to launch a smart backpack with support for touch gestures.
Samsonite Konnect-i
The backpack, named Samsonite Konnect-i, is the fourth product that comes with Google’s Jacquard technology. And with this ‘smart fabric’ being integrated into the backpack, you will be able to initiate a few customized functions on your smartphone by using hand gestures.
Gestures
The backpack supports 3 kinds of gestures: brush up, brush down, and double-tap. So, you can use the “Jacquard by Google” app to assign each of these gestures to trigger functions on your smartphone.
For instance, you can assign the “brush up” gesture to invoke Google Assistant. Now, whenever you brush up the left strap of your backpack – over the assigned touch area, Google Assistant will be ready to take your questions.
Apart from triggering the shutter button of the camera and announcing the current time, you can also assign media controls to the gestures. And with that, you can just brush up the strap to change songs or double-tap on it to play/ pause.
How Does It Work?
Now, you might be wondering how does the backpack recognize touch gestures? Well, the whole Jacquard system here is powered by a tiny black rechargeable tag-like device. It has an LED light and a vibration motor to alert users when a notification comes in and can be charged via a mini-USB port.
The idea here is to smartly connect parts of your attire to your electronic devices to form a cohesive ecosystem. So, with the Samsonite Konnect-i backpacker, you will be able to access some of the functions of your smartphone remotely when you are, say, walking around the city with your headphones on.
Physical Build
Now, coming to the physical build of the backpack, the Konnect-i backpacker comes in two variants – the Standard and the Slim. There are a lot of pockets and a padded laptop compartment in each of the variants.
There is only one major difference between these two editions: the “Slim” one comes with a vertical zipper and the “Standard” edition comes with a horizontal zipper on the front.
Price and Availability
Now, if you are planning to get the Samsonite i-Konnect, then get ready to shed a modest $200 (~Rs. 14,684) for the Slim edition and $220 (~Rs 16,153) for the standard one. You can check out the backpacks on Samsonite’s official website.
