In an announcement made at the I/O developer conference on Friday, tech biggie Google Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) research unit revealed that the company will, in collaboration with well-known clothing brand Levi's, launch a "connected" smart jacket aimed at urban cyclists.

The disclosure by ATAP's Ivan Poupyrev marks the latest update on the research unit's Project Jacquard interactive textiles project announced in 2015. The project involves weaving multi-touch sensors into clothes, so as to turn them into a kind of new "wearable" computing device.

About the "connected" smart jacket to be launched by Google's ATAP research unit and Levi's, Poupyrev said that the jacket will be called Levi's Commuter jacket; and will give wearers the ability to do a number of things - such as receive phone calls, control their music, and use navigation maps, among others - simply by tapping on its sleeve.

Revealing that the touch-sensitive area of the "connected" smart jacket will be on its cuff, Poupyrev said that the jacket will work with Spotify, Google Maps, Strava. He also added that Google plans to roll out some APIs in order to enable other developers to use the jacket too. .

The "connected" smart jacket underscores a notable effort by Google's ATAP research unit and Levi's to come up with trendy clothing which also represents a practical implementation of the Project Jacquard technology.