Google is set to release an Android-based SDK for wearable devices, said Sundar Pichai, SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps during an address at SXSW.

In Google’s view, the definition of wearables goes wider than smart watches to include sensors worn on the body, he said.

However, Pichai did not confirm that Google has plans to launch its own smart watch, as has been previously reported. The SDK will obviously be used by makers of other wearables.

“When we say wearables we think about it much more broadly,” he said. “It’s for partners and developers to figure out. It could be a jacket … with sensors — I don’t know”, according to a report on Re/code.

He added that Google’s strategy is to launch its SDK for wearables ahead of actual devices becoming available so the company has time to gather feedback from developers.

Various reports have cited Google launching its own smart watch as soon as this month, or as late as June.

But the search giant’s vision goes wider, and Pichai’s comments of a jacket with attached sensors give a flavour of how wide; monitoring of a user’s vital signs, particular illness or general fitness, tends to loom large in such plans.