Yesterday the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to the creation of bags, furniture, clothing, electronic devices, and other items using materials such as fabric and more specifically constructed smart fabric with electronic circuitry.
More specifically, Apple's patent covers a fabric-based item that may include a housing that is covered in fabric. The fabric may include conductive strands that form touch sensor circuitry. The fabric may include portions that are patterned differently and that have different properties.
For example, the fabric may include areas that transmit more light than other areas or are more opaque than other areas or may include areas that are smoother than other areas or that are coarser than other areas. Button labels and other features may be formed by weaving or otherwise intertwining strands of material in the fabric with desired patterns, by processing fabric through application of heat and using other processing techniques, and by applying ink or other materials. A good example is the Smart Keyboard Folio for the iPad Pro.
Areas of the fabric such as areas with enhanced light transmission, button labels, distinct textures, or other attributes may overlap input circuitry such as button switches, touch sensor circuits, force sensors, proximity sensors, and other sensing circuitry. The fabric-based item may include control circuitry that gathers user input from the input circuitry and wireless communications circuitry that the control circuitry uses to transmit remote control commands and other wireless signals in response information from the input circuitry. Remote control commands may be used to remotely control electronic equipment.
Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a schematic diagram of an illustrative fabric-based item; FIG. 4 is a diagram of an illustrative touch sensor formed using fabric; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative fabric layer overlapping electrical components; and FIG. 16 is a side view of an illustrative fabric-based item with deformable housing walls.
Patently Apple first covered this invention back in 2018 in an IP-report titled "Apple wins a Major Smart Fabric Patent Aimed at Future Products like an Apple TV Remote, Smart Clothing, MacBooks and more. Apple's original work on this invention, that wasn't made public until it was granted, dates back to June 2017.
Apple's patent published yesterday wasn't a new invention application but rather a continuation patent wherein Apple is updating and/or adding specific technology, features and/or methods that they want to legally extend into their current granted patent. Any change and/or addition to this invention is restricted to Apple's patent claims.
So, What's New in this Fabric's Invention?
In the 2018 granted patent, Apple's patent claims were broken down into two distinct segments: 1) the first 13 patent claims were specifically for a fabric-based Apple TV remote, and (2) the other 7 patent claims covered a "fabric-based item" in general.
In yesterday's continuation patent, all 20 patent claims fell under the one category of "The fabric-based item." Each of the patent claims differ from the previous granted patent. The 20 new patent claims are as follows:
- A fabric-based item comprising: a housing; a fabric layer covering a majority of the housing; a light-emitting component configured to emit light through the fabric layer in a pattern for a virtual button; wireless communications circuitry; and control circuitry configured to transmit wireless signals with the wireless communications circuitry.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 1, further comprising: a touch-sensitive component that is configured to detect touch input in an area on the fabric layer associated with the virtual button; and a haptic device that is configured to provide tactile feedback in response to the touch-sensitive component detecting the touch input.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 1, further comprising: a touch-sensitive component that is configured to detect touch input for the virtual button.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 3, wherein the touch-sensitive component comprises touch sensor electrodes that are overlapped by the fabric layer.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 3, wherein the touch-sensitive component comprises touch sensor electrodes that are formed by conductive strands in the fabric layer.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 3, wherein the touch-sensitive component comprises an optical touch sensor that operates through the fabric layer.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 1, further comprising: a force sensor that is overlapped by the fabric layer.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 1, further comprising: a haptic device that is configured to provide tactile feedback in response to input at the virtual button.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 8, wherein the light-emitting component is configured to emit the light through an area of the fabric layer in the pattern for the virtual button and wherein the haptic device is configured to provide the tactile feedback at the area of the fabric layer.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 9, further comprising: a touch-sensitive component that is configured to detect touch input in the area of the fabric layer.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 1, wherein the pattern of light emitted through the fabric is a button trim pattern.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 1, wherein the pattern of light emitted through the fabric is a symbol.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 1, wherein the pattern of light emitted through the fabric is an alphanumeric key label.
- A fabric-based item comprising: a housing; a fabric layer covering a majority of the housing; a light-emitting component configured to emit light through the fabric layer for a visual status indicator; wireless communications circuitry; and control circuitry configured to transmit wireless signals with the wireless communications circuitry.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 14, wherein the light-emitting component comprises a light-emitting diode.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 15, wherein light-emitting diode is part of an array of light-emitting diodes.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 14, wherein the visual status indicator is a power status indicator.
- A fabric-based item comprising: a housing; a fabric layer covering a majority of the housing; an array of light-emitting components configured to display an image through the fabric layer; wireless communications circuitry; and control circuitry configured to transmit wireless signals with the wireless communications circuitry.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 18, wherein the array of light-emitting components comprises an array of light-emitting diodes.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 18, wherein the array of light-emitting components comprises a pixelated display.
Apple's continuous patent application 20200270777 that was published yesterday by the U.S. Patent Office was filed back on May 11, 2020.
Although some aspects of this invention have already been used with Apple's Smart Keyboard Folio for the iPad Pro, there are many more that could make their way to market in the future with a specific date unavailable to us.
Below is a photo of a user wearing a Levi Strauss jean jacket that is using smart fabrics associated with the Levi Strauss-Google Project Jacquard. Where the young lady is touching the cuff of her jean jacket could very well be an area where we may see either a virtual button or simple touch in the future as Apple has described.
As for Google, at present they haven't exactly delivered smart-fabric yet. They cheat. They place a gadget you integrate in the jacket to make it smart but even then it's still not working all of the time. Yes, it's still a work in progress and will likely take Apple to get it just right and actually functional.
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August 29, 2020 at 03:16AM
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Apple updates their 'Smart Fabrics' invention to emphasize the creation of Fabric items with 'Virtual Buttons' - Patently Apple
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