While Apple and Google have been working on smart fabrics, Google was first with a patent back in late October 2016. In 2017 our Patently Mobile site posted a report titled "Google Advances their Future Smart Clothing Vision with Focus on Delivering an 'Interactive Garment." Google got the jump on Apple by teaming up with the Levi jeans company with two Jackets under Google's project Jacquard. In 2019 two smart Levi jackets went on sale supporting this project. The project eventually died. Could Apple make it viable? 

Apple began filing smart fabric patents in March 2017 with their first for fabrics covering a MacBook. They went on to file patents for smart fabric relating to clothing in 2023 (01 and 02).

Apple also filed a patent in 2023 relating to smart fabrics related to a future Apple Watch Band.

This week the U.S. Patent Office published three technical patent applications for Apple's possible future smart fabric came to light.

In Apple's patent background they note that it may be desirable to form bags, furniture, clothing, and other items from materials such as fabric. Fabric items generally do not include electrical components. It may be desirable, however, to incorporate electrical components into fabric to provide a user of a fabric item with enhanced functionality.

Apple notes in their patent filing that electronic devices, enclosures, and other items may be formed from fabric such as knit fabric and braided fabric. The knit or braided fabric may include strands of insulating and conductive material. Conductive strands may form signal paths through the fabric and may be coupled to electrical components such as light-emitting diodes and other light-emitting devices, integrated circuits, sensors, haptic output devices, control circuitry, and other circuitry.

Knitting equipment and braiding equipment may be provided with individually adjustable components. The use of individually adjustable components may allow electrical components to be inserted into the fabric during the formation of the fabric.

Knitting equipment may be used to form warp knit fabric. The warp knit fabric may be a spacer fabric having a spacer strand that travels back and forth between outer warp knit layers. The spacer fabric may include a pocket for receiving an electrical component. The electrical component may be mounted to an inlaid conductive strand that floats between the outer warp knit layers and that is held in place by the space strand. The pocket may be one of multiple pockets in the spacer fabric that are separated from one another by the spacer strand. Electrical components may be mounted in the pockets.

Apple's notes that their patent FIG. 1 below may include fabric-based items such as an electronic device or an accessory for an electronic device such as a laptop computer, a computer monitor containing an embedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, a media player, or other handheld or portable electronic device, a smaller device such as a wrist-watch device, a pendant device, a headphone or earpiece device, a device embedded in eyeglasses or other equipment worn on a user's head, or other wearable or miniature device, a television, a computer display that does not contain an embedded computer, a gaming device, a navigation device, an embedded system such as a system in which fabric item 10 is mounted in a kiosk, in an automobile, airplane, or other vehicle (e.g., an autonomous or non-autonomous vehicle), other electronic equipment, or equipment that implements the functionality of two or more of these devices. 

If desired, item 10 may be a removable external case for electronic equipment, may be a strap, may be a wrist band or head band, may be a removable cover for a device, may be a case or bag that has straps or that has other structures to receive and carry electronic equipment and other items, may be a necklace or arm band, may be a wallet, sleeve, pocket, or other structure into which electronic equipment or other items may be inserted, may be part of a chair, sofa, or other seating (e.g., cushions or other seating structures), may be part of an item of clothing or other wearable item (e.g., a hat, belt, wrist band, headband, etc.), or may be any other suitable item that incorporates fabric.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below s a diagram of a portion of an illustrative layer of warp knit fabric to which an electrical component has been mounted; FIG. 9 is a side view of illustrative knitting equipment being used to form a spacer knit fabric with an electrical component interposed between first and second outer warp knit layers.

Apple's patent FIG. 13 above is a perspective view of illustrative braiding equipment being used to braid strands around an electrical component; and FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative braided strand having an electrical component mounted to an inlaid conductive strand.

Engineers and advanced techies could review the full details under Apple's patent application 20240417898. The other two related patents are presented below:

Patent 02 20240417897: Weft Knit Fabric With Electrical Components

Patent 03 20240417898: Warp Knit And Braided Fabrics With Electrical Components