Public sector pants: Jeans with built-in keyboard

Is that a keyboard in your pocket? Could tomorrow’s public works crews, police, emergency responders and the military be wearing digital dungarees — high-tech trousers equipped with a wireless rubber keyboard that is sewn into the midsection?

A fashion designer in the Netherlands came up with the geek breeches concept. The jeans go by the name Beauty and the Geek pants from a company called Nieuwel Heren. “The idea was that you could log in to your computer and control it without sitting in a closed environment behind your desk,” said Erik de Nijs, the designer, in a news item in the Daily Mail. With the jeans, “you don’t have to be stiff behind your screen, but you can move in any position you want because the keyboard would be in the same place.”

The tricked-out trousers feature a wireless mouse (via Bluetooth connection) in the back pocket and a pair of speakers sewn into the thighs. More specifically, the speakers are on the side near one’s knees where the leg bends. The jeans have stitches like the pattern of a motherboard or printed circuit board from a PC. The jeans concept is designed to work in a wireless world.

An earlier prototype pair of jeans included a plug that connects to the wearer’s laptop. The plug looks like a belt and would be worn around the waist when the user is not connected to the utility grid. A restyled version of the jeans, says the designer, would include a full wireless USB connection.

The designer’s startup company has only developed a prototype, but preliminary estimates put the price tag for the pants at around $400 retail.

Govpro has reached out to Nieuwel Heren as well as Studio OOOMS, another firm connected with the designer, to find out when the pants will be available.

The question is, where would jeans with a sewn-in keyboard work?

Public works crews

Police, law enforcement

Emergency responders

Military applications

Government IT departments

Add your comments below.

Or, would Google’s Android-Powered HUD Glasses pretty much eliminate the need for jeans with a sewn-in keyboard?