by Linda Machina

You’ve Got the VR Glasses—But Do You Have the VR Jacket?

You’ve Got the VR Glasses—But Do You Have the VR Jacket?

 

Machina has been around since 2012. In 2014, it released its first product, a jacket that acts as a MIDI-compatible music controller. Still, after checking out the product at the Highway 1 accelerator’s May demo day, I did find myself wondering whether this system is going to stand a chance against competition like Levi Strauss and Google’s joint effort to take connected clothing mainstream. However, OBE founder Linda Franco announced that the company has its first big order: Samsung is buying 500 jackets that it will use for software development and market testing. (And yes, the jacket is machine washable, though you have to remember to pull out a few key modules.)

via IEEE Spectrum