If you thought it was only a matter of time before Google tried to turn your jeans into a computer, well, guess what, you were right.

Last week, the second day of its annual developer conference, Google I/O, one of the search giant’s semi-secretive research divisions announced a project that aims to make conductive fabrics that can be weaved into everyday clothes. The effort, called Project Jacquard, is named for the French inventor of the Jacquard Loom, which revolutionized textile manufacturing and helped pave the way for modern computing.

Much like the screens on mobile phones, these fabrics could register the user’s touch and transmit information elsewhere, like to a smartphone or tablet computer. They are made from conductive yarns that come in a rainbow of colors and can withstand the clothing manufacturing process, so “can be woven into textiles on the same looms that are used to make traditional fabrics,” according to a Google news release.

Google also announced a new partnership with Levi Strauss in which the companies would try to make interactive garments that would allow people to do things like send someone a text message by swiping their jacket cuff. The companies said they were hoping to integrate the technology into an apparel line next year, but did not say what kind of clothes or how much they might cost.

Project Jacquard was one of several new projects to come out of Google’s Advanced Technologies and Products group, or ATAP. Others included Project Soli, an attempt to use tiny radars that can detect fine motions like hand gestures and finger movements, which could potentially allow someone to use their hand to manipulate any digital interface. Ivan Poupyrev, a Google researcher, demonstrated this by rubbing his fingers in the air, at which point a bead-sized ball on a screen responded to his gestures.

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Credit: GOOGLE Project Jacquard

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The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has signed a $15 million commitment with Nova-Lumos, providers of off-grid electricity, to finance solar electricity in Nigerian homes and small businesses.

The deal was announced by U.S. Secretary John Kerry at the Climate and Clean Energy Investment Forum, held Oct. 20-21 in Washington, D.C., according to a press release from the U.S. State Department.

The State Department described the Nova-Lumos project as “highly innovative.”

Nova-Lumos created what it calls a “home power station in a box,” according to a 2013 report in Haaretz. The technology includes a solar panel activated by text messaging that can supply enough electricity to charge a cell phone, operate a radio and illuminate a home.

The company was founded in Israel in 2012 by Nir Marom and Davidi Vortman, and is now based in the Netherlands. The $15 million deal is with Txtlight, the Nigerian Subsidiary of Lumos Netherlands BV, said Daniel Ben Yehuda, director of business development.

“We want to be the largest alternative electricity company in the world and supply home systems producing clean electricity,” Vortman told Haaretz in 2013. “Our model allows consumers to pay for the electricity used without purchasing the whole system in advance. This is a huge revolution.”

The Nova-Lumos project provides clean, off-grid power access designed to serve the nearly 90 million Nigerians who live without connection to the electric grid, according to the U.S. government. OPIC financing will support expansion of Nova-Lumos’s solar power service to homes and small businesses throughout Nigeria.

OPIC is the U.S. government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and, in doing so, tries to advance U.S. foreign policy.

“This marks the largest OPIC investment to the off-grid power sector in Africa, a key component of increasing energy access in a region where people are not grid-connected and the need for reliable power is especially acute,” the U.S. government said.

The Lumos offering “includes a home solar panel linked to an indoor storage-and-connection unit that allows customers to access significant amounts of power on demand, day or night,” ESIAfrica reports. “The affordable Lumos service allows customers to utilize a pay-as-you-go model in small amounts by text message.”

Lumos’ business model is highly scalable in large part due to the company’s partnerships with mobile operators, according to ESIAfrica. In Nigeria, Lumos partnered with South Africa-based MTN, the largest telecommunications company in Nigeria with more than 60 million subscribers.

“We are very excited about this major financing milestone in partnership with OPIC, which will enable us to accelerate our growth in Nigeria and improve the lives of millions,” said David Vortman, CEO and co-founder at Lumos.

“Lumos brings vision, innovation, and sound business sense to address the power access challenge in Africa,” said Elizabeth Littlefield, OPIC president and CEO.

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An Australian engineer has built a robot that can build houses in two days, and could work every day to build houses for people.

Human housebuilders have to work for four to six weeks to put a house together, and have to take weekends and holidays. The robot can work much more quickly and doesn’t need to take breaks.

Hadrian could take the jobs of human bricklayers. But its creator, Mark Pivac, told PerthNow that it was a response to the lack of available workers — the average age of the industry is getting much higher, and the robot might be able to fill some of that gap.

“People have been laying bricks for about 6000 years and ever since the industrial revolution, they have tried to automate the bricklaying process,” Pivac told PerthNow, which first reported his creation. But despite the thousands of years of housebuilding, most bricklaying is still done by hand.

Hadrian works by laying 1000 bricks an hour, letting it put up 150 houses a year.

It takes a design of the house and then works out where all of the bricks need to go, before cutting and laying each of them. It has a 28-foot arm, which is used to set and mortar the brick, and means that it doesn’t need to move during the laying.

Pivac will now work to commercialise the robot, first in West Australia but eventually globally.

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