Challenge: Tech up my jacket.

[Pizza Man]

Han Solo wore a leather jacket all the time in any weather.

Here is the challenge: What can you put into a leather (looking) jacket with 500 years of technology to work with?

 

Temperature control is obviously one of them: if you're going to visit 50 different planets in a week, you want to be cool in hot climes and warm in cold climates. Basic tech stuff.

What else can you fit in there?

[Ragitsu]

A thin internal layer of flexible metal that can be charged into an electromagnetic state via your futuristic power source-of-choice. Ferrous metals can then be stuck to the jacket. If the effect is strong enough, you may be able to invoke the "Krazy Glue" effect by adhering to a ferrous surface.

 

If that isn't futuristic enough, replace the single piece of jacket-sized wraparound metal with pockets for metallic plate inserts. Each insert comes into contact with a pair of leads that connect to the power source. In place of leads, there may even be metallic threading as fine as silk which is woven into the jacket's base material for the sake of electrical conductivity.

 

Further still, we move away entirely from the concept of fixed inert pieces of metal and have a liquid suspension of nanomachines which come together in order to form links for the electromagnetic effect. Thanks to the ability of these microscopic machines to go anywhere and not be tethered to any one point, the EM field can be projected in any configuration the wearer desires.

[archer]

With wires and studs on the jacket, you could have a damage shield or a force field. Even without that, probably some kind of ultralight armor as faux leather or built into the liner.

 

Absolute Time Sense, Bump of Direction, Eidetic Memory for recording audio/video, computer link, commercially-available encrypted radio communications, and Lightning Calculator built into the sleeve's flexible screen (for those who don't have their tech installed directly into their forearms). Basically any app you could load to an I-pad or cell phone today would be available as an integrated part of the jacket (flashlight, level, Pokemon Go, a fan, etc.)

 

Probably the option for an OnStar kind of service which summons bodyguards, transportation or both in an emergency. The service might be set to activate on multiple triggers as well as on demand.

 

I'd also have an inside-the-sleeve holster for my sonic screwdriver.

 

High-end military grade models would probably have most of the abilities of what we think of as power armor today but with slightly less of a power level.

[Duke Bushido]

Rebreather filter media.  Plug a mouthpiece and small hose into a  small socket under a pocket-like flap to cope with noxious or lightly-tainted atmospheres.

 

Inflatable folds for emergency flotation.  Yeah; that one seems a bit out there, but I figured I'd try the survival gear direction.  Locator beacon, and build your com gear directly into the jacket as a back-up when your regular coms get damaged, maybe.

[Duke Bushido]

Oh-- color-sensing system and color-changing fibers to keep you camouflaged (if you want) or make sure you always contrast vividly if you're looking for rescue.

[borbetomagnus]

Coming from a post-human, singularity angle, make the jacket sentient. Give it a personality. Let it be the navigator for your ship (sorry, Chewie). Let it provide climate/weather protection by projecting a field that encloses the wearer in protective environment that allows the wearer to explore toxic environments. Let the protective field act as a bio-recycling station that takes the wearer's waste and transforms it into forms that can be reused by the environment that the wearer currently is in. It could also act as a shield against weapons.