Apple updates their Smart-Fabric Health Glove Invention by Emphasizing 'Force Touch' Capabilities
Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to a health glove using smart-fabrics. Unlike a competing site's report this morning that claims that it's a new patent filing, the patent itself reveals it's nothing more than a "continuation patent" not a new patent in the least.
Patently Apple originally covered this in December 2018 as a patent application and this past January as a granted patent. You could review the original patents for more details and patent figures.
So what's changed since being granted this patent in January?
Of course all of the changes are found in their patent claims. That's what a continuation patent is all about – Apple wanting particular features protected by law. It's common for tech companies to seek multiple granted patents for the same invention so that they could better fight it out in court and ensure that the invention is specifically covered for important aspects of an invention to protect it against patent trolls.
In this continuation patent, Apple provides a complete new round of patent claims that focuses in on "force sensors." Below you'll find the complete list of claims that are being added to Apple's standing invention:
- Apparatus, comprising: conductive strands of material that form signal paths; control circuitry coupled to the signal paths; and a force sensor coupled to the control circuitry, wherein the force sensor has a force sensor element and capacitive force sensor circuitry that is electrically coupled to the force sensor element through the signal paths.
- The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the conductive strands form at least part of the force sensor.
- The apparatus defined in claim 2 wherein the conductive strands form a fabric and at least a portion of the force sensor is embedded in the fabric.
- The apparatus defined in claim 3 wherein the conductive strands are monofilaments.
- The apparatus defined in claim 4 wherein the force sensor element includes a compressible substrate and first and second electrodes that are respectively located on first and second opposing surfaces of the compressible substrate.
- The apparatus defined in claim 5 wherein the force sensor comprises a metal shielding layer on the compressible substrate.
- The apparatus defined in claim 6 wherein the force sensor element comprises a metal layer on the compressible substrate having serpentine signal paths.
- A wearable electronic device, comprising: fabric having intertwined strands; control circuitry; and a force sensor coupled to the control circuitry and to the fabric.
- The wearable electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the fabric forms a glove that is configured to be worn on a user's hand and wherein at least a portion of the force sensor is in a finger portion of the glove.
- The wearable electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the force sensor includes vertical strip-shaped electrodes and horizontal strip-shaped electrodes that overlap the vertical strip-shaped electrodes.
- The wearable electronic device defined in claim 10 wherein the force sensor is configured to make two-dimensional force measurements using the vertical strip-shaped electrodes and the horizontal strip-shaped electrodes.
- The wearable electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the force sensor includes a compressible substrate and first and second electrodes that are respectively located on first and second opposing surfaces of the compressible substrate.
- The wearable electronic device defined in claim 12 wherein the force sensor further comprises an electrical shield on the compressible substrate and conductive traces on the compressible substrate that couple the first and second electrodes to capacitive force sensor circuitry.
- The wearable electronic device defined in claim 13 wherein the compressible substrate has first and second elastomeric layers, wherein the first electrode is a sense electrode between the first and second elastomeric layers and wherein the second electrode is a drive electrode on the first elastomeric layer and separated from the first electrode by the first elastomeric layer.
- The wearable electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the force sensor is formed from force sensor elements on an elongated strip-shaped polymer substrate that forms one of the intertwined strands.
- A fabric-based item configured to be worn by a user, comprising: fabric formed from intertwined strands of material; control circuitry; and a force sensor coupled to the fabric and electrically coupled to the control circuitry, wherein the force sensor includes an elastomeric material and first and second electrodes separated by the elastomeric material.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 16 wherein the force sensor is embedded in the fabric.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 17 wherein the elastomeric material has first and second opposing surfaces and wherein the force sensor further comprises first and second respective shielding layers on the first and second surfaces of the elastomeric material.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 16 wherein the intertwined strands of material include conductive strands and wherein at least a portion of the force sensor is formed from the conductive strands.
- The fabric-based item defined in claim 16 wherein the fabric is configured to be worn on the user's finger.
Apple's continuation patent application 20190113972 that was published today by the U.S. Patent Office was originally filed back in Q4 2018. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.
UPDATE 7:17 A.M.
A second continuation patent surfaced today about smart fabrics. Patently Apple covered this as a granted patent back in December 2018 under the title "Apple wins a Major Smart Fabric Patent Aimed at Future Products like an Apple TV Remote, Smart Clothing, MacBooks and more. Once again, new patent claims were added. Finding the real differences in the claims is a little more difficult on this one, but for one new aspect is found in patent claim #20:
"The fabric-based item defined in claim 18, wherein the touch sensor is configured to obtain grip detection information."
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