Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 38 newly granted utility patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover a possible future smart band that could be used on an Apple Watch or future HMD device. Apple was also granted patents for AirPods, Touch ID button for iPad, a design patent and more. And, as always, we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple this week.

 

Smart Band for Apple Watch and Future HMD

Apple's invention covers a fabric-based item may be provide with a stretchable band. The stretchable band may be formed from a ring-shaped strip of stretchable fabric having an opening configured to fit around a body part of a user.

Circuitry may be coupled to strands of material in the stretchable band. The circuitry may include sensor circuitry for making measurement on the body part such as electrocardiogram measurements, blood pressure measurements, respiration rate measurements, and other measurements.

The wearable device may be a wrist band with elastic fabric, a head band with elastic fabric, or other wearable item that includes elastic fabric (e.g., a hat, an undergarment worn on a user's torso or lower body, a shirt, pants, shorts (e.g., bicycle shorts, board shorts, or other snugly fitting clothing), yoga clothing or other athletic attire, an arm band, an elastic belt, a sock, a glove, etc.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a schematic diagram of an illustrative fabric-based item; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an illustrative item such as a band that is formed from elastic fabric.

Apple’s patent claims (the legal part of a patent) focuses the invention specifically to two applications: a wristwatch device (Apple Watch) and a future HMD.

Apple lists engineer Daniel Podhajny as one of the inventors. Podhajny is listed on many Nike patents while working on Nike Flyknit breathable material runners. For full details, review Apple’s granted patent 12133743.

Other Granted Patents of interest

Apple was granted a patent for the Touch ID button on iPad, iPad Air and iPad mini (12135855)

Apple was granted a detailed AirPods patent (12137312)

Apple was granted a Project Titan patent (12134308) for “Systems with Suppressed Window Reflections.”

Apple Granted a Design Patent

(Click on image to Enlarge)

This Week's Remaining Granted Patents