Smart jacket with mobile phone and MP3 player

The chipmaker Infineon has teamed up with Rosner, a German clothes manufacturer, to create a smart jacket called mp3blue. Styled for men, the jacket incorporates an MP3 player which is coupled via Bluetooth to a mobile phone. The electronics are genuinely integral with the jacket and even the internal wiring uses conductive fibres sown into the material.

User entry is via a textile keyboard on the sleeve and the user's voice is captured by a microphone stitched into the collar. Nearby, a pair of earphones sprout out.

The mobile phone and MP3 player are integrated in that when an incoming call is received, the system switches the earphones from the MP3 playing to telephony.

Infineon claim the mp3blue is the "world's first lifestyle jacket" and that similar items of clothing are set to follow.

For purposes of cleaning, the electronics module can be removed from the jacket although it can't function as a standalone mp3 player as it requires the sleeve buttons to control it.