Apple Receives a New Patent For 'Smart Fabric' (dwell.com)

MikeChino writes: Is Apple branching out into clever clothing? On January 1, 2019, the tech giant was awarded an original design patent for "Fabric." First filed for in September 2016, the "Fabric" patent shows a swatch of a ridged material in gray, dark gray, and white to represent contrasting appearances. Apple has filed for several patents in the last few years related to combining technology with fabric, but this is the first glimpse we've had at what that fabric might look like. The "smart" fabric could sense environmental changes, warn the wearer of various events, and/or respond to pressure and touch.

As Dwell notes, "Apple's other fabric-related patents have involved a jacket that sends tactile or audible signals to visually and hearing impaired users -- so they can walk around without a cane or guide dog -- and a force-sensing fabric with interwoven circuits that could be used in a glove to track a wearer's vital signs and control devices wirelessly."

Comments

Events

[Joce640k]

The "smart" fabric could sense environmental changes, warn the wearer of various events

You mean like when it's cold outside?

I already have a sensor for that.

Have you read TFS, let alone TFA?

[drinkypoo]

TFS makes it clear that this is a design patent. TFA makes it even clearer, when it says the "Fabric" patent is a claim on an "ornamental design for a fabric,". This is not a patent on technology, it's a patent on a design. Nobody else can make smart fabric that looks like Apple's. So what? Change the weave, add a pattern, change the color even, and now the patent doesn't apply.