A new snowboarding jacket from O'Neill features integrated Bluetooth and MP3 playback capabilities for the technologically prone snowboarder.
Infineon Technologies and O'Neill Europe has unveiled the first result of a joint product development project conducted by the two companies: a snowboard jacket dubbed 'The Hub'. Based on O'Neill's specifications, Infineon has developed a chip module suitable for integration into a jacket adapted to withstand raw snowboarding environments.
Woven into The Hub snowboard jacket are electrically conductive fabric tracks, which connect a chip module to a fabric keyboard and built-in speakers in the helmet. The chip module contains a full-featured MP3 player with 128 MB of storage and a Bluetooth module via which the snowboarder can control a mobile phone, according to Infineon.
 | | An Infineon-made prototype of The Hub |
The MP3 player offers 8 hours of playback, and lets users control their personal tune selection via a control pad blended into the fabric on the left arm. Tracks can be uploaded via the USB port while a standard headphone jack is incorporated into the chest pocket allowing the rider to use their own personal earphones as an alternative to the jacket's built-in kit.
On the Bluetooth side, the jacket enables full hands-free communications through allowing the stereo system to act as the headset, while a microphone is integrated in the collar of the jacket.
Further information concerning pricing and availability was not available at the time of writing.
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