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.

Re:Events

[Z00L00K]

How many Science Fiction stories have already been written on this subject?

It should be sufficient to declare as prior art. Precedence - see waterbed invented by Heinlein and placed in the Public Domain by him.

Re:Events

[Joce640k]

It doesn't need constant battery charges or need an app, either. Two more strikes against it.

Re:Events

[Joce640k]

On the plus side: It has a neural uplink. That'd a better buzzword than 'Bluetooth', which is getting quite old now.

Re:Events

[Dragonslicer]

How many Science Fiction stories have already been written on this subject?

It should be sufficient to declare as prior art.

Unless those stories included illustrations that are the same as the image in the patent, they aren't prior art.

This is a design patent. Design patents are more like trademarks than they are like utility patents (what we typically call just "patents"). Apple didn't receive a patent for "fabric with areas with contrasting appearance", they received a patent for the specific design shown. This design patent also doesn't cover anything about "smart" fabric, since design patents can't have any functional elements.

As for the "smart" fabric aspect, fiction stories generally can't be prior art for utility patents, since a utility patent is supposed to be only for a specific implementation, and even science fiction stories don't usually describe enough details to meet the disclosure requirements of a patent. If a science fiction story does describe everything that's in a patent, then either the patent is too broad (i.e. it covers the concept of some machine or device instead of a specific implementation) or the science fiction story has gone well outside the bounds of a good piece of fiction.

Re:Events

[Wargames]

Obviously, the sensors on the fabric would be ones that are different than the wearer's built in humanoid sensors; and like there are people who are blind, there are also people who cannot detect cold outside. For example: the inebriated. There are many useful sensors that could alert the wearer: radiation, carbon monoxide. Alert! dodge incoming high velocity objects.

Could you just imagine

[Anonymous Coward]

If Apple actually did anything with all these patents besides hinder innovation?

Re:Could you just imagine

[q4Fry]

Now you can't make a shirt with rounded elbows.

Has Apple read Make! Magazine?

[ShoulderOfOrion]

Since pretty much every issue includes prior art of makers creating fabric items with electronic sensors for exactly these purposes.

Is this newsworthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

We hear about these Apple patents all the time, but they never seem to turn into any type of product.

I think anybody can pretty much patent anything.

A fashion company

[VeryFluffyBunny]

I always thought that Apple Inc. was more of a fashion retailer than a tech company, i.e. over-priced electronic jewellery, accessories, & tabletop furnishings. Probably, the only thing holding them back from going "full fashion" is the fact that copyright & patents are meaningless in the world of fashion design; The only thing it protects is trademarks. Can anyone name an actually manufactured & retailed Apple "innovation" that wasn't bought or copied from somewhere else? e.g. https://images.mentalfloss.com...

Re:That's a crime against nature

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Weaving into the underwear of an IT project manager would be way worse.

Fashion choices

[Anonymous Coward]

It will be available in the choice of black turtleneck sweater.

Re:"Clever" clothing in only one sense.

[Joce640k]

Cleverer than the people who'll be buying it, the "iPhone" and the "smart watch" crowd.

We all need more things that need constant battery charges just to make it through the day.

Who says the patented fabric is smart?

[Anonymous Coward]

In the first article, except for the title, there were no quotes of anyone saying that the fabric was smart. The article said that Apple had gotten a patent for "Fabric", and the article assumed that the fabric was smart. In the second article, there was no mention of "smart" at all.

Maybe the fabric isn't smart, in the sense of making decisions or communicating.

I wonder if the fabric uses the motions of you walking and moving your arms, to generate a small electric current that can charge your phone.

Re: Happy Investigation Day to All

[BeauHD-Cum Dumpster]

Oh hi Donald. Maybe 66% does keep thinking about her because 66% voted for her. #NotMyPresident -BeauHD

This sort of medical tech is a dead end

[monkeyxpress]

I used to work in this end of the medical devices field (non-invasive therapy equipment stuff) and it is not going to be the boon Apple seems to think it will be. The reason for this is that there is only so much you can do by non-invasively measuring temperature, pressure and electrical signals from a patient. For example, we have known how to do ECG for a really long time now. It is not expensive. If there was a general benefit to performing periodic ECGs of the population en-mass this could have easily been done by now. The reality is that there is not that much benefit, so even the best healthcare systems in the world don't bother doing it.

Again, with fall detection alarms. There are plenty of these products around and they have been a thing for at least 20-30 years. I had a friend who started a company doing this back in the late 90s. The reality is that those who need them already have one, and in many cases it will have been paid for by the government or their insurance. I doubt those who cannot afford one will be able to fork out for an Apple Watch instead. For myself, I would also rather trust a dedicated system (these things had to have failsafe circuitry in the base station and backup power etc) than a consumer electronics device that needs to be recharged each night. Sure, as an extra its great, but it isn't going to shake up the industry.

The other problem with these products is that there is no real 'market' for them. Basically the industry is a whole series of kickbacks between physicians, insurers and manufacturers in an attempt to get your product 'recommended' to the customer. Almost none of these customers pay for the things out of pocket, and almost all will choose based on what their physician says is best. Hence the whole industry is about networking and kickbacks. I doubt Apple will take the time to deal with all this, and unless they can replace doctors as the patient's point of contact, they aren't going to be able to sweep through the industry and clear out the graft.

A new world is opening up

[hyades1]

"The 'smart' fabric could sense environmental changes, warn the wearer of various events, and/or respond to pressure and touch."

Subway pervert uses for such fabric would seem to be almost limitless. For less specialized porn applications, of course, one would remove "almost" from the previous sentence.

Daredevil outfits

[MaxDuo]

visually and hearing impaired users -- so they can walk around without a cane or guide dog

Put on this suit and you no longer need to see or hear? Hopefully it works out better than the original Apple Maps.

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.

Re:Have you read TFS, let alone TFA?

[ShoulderOfOrion]

Both the summary and the article imply this has something to do with smart fabric. However, you're right--follow the links all the way to the patent and this is nothing more than a particular configuration of fabric, with no mention of anything smart whatsoever. That's not a design patent, it's a fabric pattern patent. Why is the U.S.P.T.O. even patenting something that silly. That's a copyright concern, at most.

Re:Have you read TFS, let alone TFA?

[Theaetetus]

Both the summary and the article imply this has something to do with smart fabric. However, you're right--follow the links all the way to the patent and this is nothing more than a particular configuration of fabric, with no mention of anything smart whatsoever. That's not a design patent, it's a fabric pattern patent. Why is the U.S.P.T.O. even patenting something that silly. That's a copyright concern, at most.

Because if you remake the fabric on your own, you wouldn't infringe the copyright.
Design patents are more like trade dress (minus the requirement of distinctiveness and adding requirements of novelty and nonobviousness and a time-limited term), which is why it's natural for the USPTrademarkO to cover them.

They can't hinder prior art

[DrYak]

The things covered by this patent have been done for years by makers enthusiasts and has spun since then an entire cottage industry (with shops like Adafruits catering to the specific needs such as microcontroller small and light enough to be sewed in).

So:

- Apple hasn't managed to hinder the development of cloths with micro-controller sewed in.

- How the hell did Apple get a patent granted on this ? This has been publicly discussed in forums for ages. Unless they have filed a submarine patent a decade ago...

- Great, hordes of Apple Fanboy swooning at some "iShirt(tm)", exactly what the world lacked.

Re:They can't hinder prior art

[Dragonslicer]

The things covered by this patent have been done for years by makers enthusiasts...

Unless you can give examples of people making fabrics that look exactly like the illustration in the patent, your statement is incorrect. This is a design patent, not a utility patent.

Emperor Cook

[ArhcAngel]

This fabric will be woven into the finest garment for our illustrious Emperor Tim Cook. And the people will gaze upon the emperor's new clothes in amazement.

Urgh, not Apple!

[squiggleslash]

I mean Apple has practically made computers, MP3 players, and phones fashion items. Now they're going to do the same thing with clothes? Let's keep fashion and style out of such an important commodity! We don't want clothes that cost a huge amount of money just because they have a logo on them, or have some distinctive, but not very practical, look to them.

What next? Shoes?

Star Trek did it first.

[Iwastheone]

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/...

"My compliments to you. And to your dressmaker." - Spock to Miranda, upon realizing that she is blind,

Fun fact: When Jessica Walter, the original actress proposed for the role of Miranda Jones became unavailable and a search for a replacement was fruitless, director Ralph Senensky recommended Diana Muldaur for the role, since they'd worked together the previous season in "Return to Tomorrow" and also in an episode of I, Spy. According to Senensky there was a policy against the reuse of guest stars in different roles (a claim refuted by the large number of actors who did, in fact, return to the series in multiple roles). This problem was solved by having Muldaur wear a black wig, creating a different appearance for the actress. After viewing the rushes, co-producer Robert H. Justman walked out of the screening room saying, "I wonder how she looks in a red wig", jokingly referring to another possible appearance by Muldaur in a potential fourth season.

That God.

[aix tom]

Finally something that will put a new meaning to "Wardrobe Malfunction"