How Apple plans to turn your jacket into an iPhone

(Image credit: Levi's)

published 24 February 2021

Apple is working on smart fabric buttons which can be integrated into items of clothing, turning your regular, old, dumb clothes into futuristic smart clothing that you have to upgrade every year (maybe?).

Apple notes in a patent, which was recently published by the US Patent & Trademark Office, that electronic devices with fabric buttons could include wearable structures could include a watch strap, hat, glove, or shirt, as well as keyboards, enclosures, portable electronic devices such as cellular telephones or laptop computers.

The patent, which was discovered by Patently Apple, reveals how the smart fabric will work, using strands of conductive material that form resistive paths and can be monitored by control circuitry.

This would allow a fabric button to be created in a knit fabric or other intertwined strands of material.

In its most basic form, an integrated button in clothing could be useful as a way of controlling basic functions on your iPhone, such as answering a call, activating Siri, or taking a picture.

But the patent also includes a list of sensors that the fabric could include:

Optical sensors
Ultrasonic sensors
Optical touch sensors
Optical proximity sensors, and/or other touch sensors and/or proximity sensors
Monochromatic and colour ambient light sensors
Image sensors
Fingerprint sensors
Temperature sensors
Sensors for measuring three-dimensional non-contact gestures ("air gestures")
Pressure sensors
Sensors for detecting position, orientation, and/or motion
Health sensors
Radio-frequency sensors
Depth sensors
Humidity sensors
Moisture sensors
Gaze tracking sensors
Three-dimensional sensors (e.g., time-of-flight image sensors, pairs of two-dimensional image sensors that gather three-dimensional images using binocular vision)

To name a few!

If combined into a single garment, these would obviously make a very compelling iPhone replacement, but, equally, individual sensors could also be used in Apple Watch bands for more niche use cases.

Of course, it's always worth remembering that this is just a patent filing, so there's no way of knowing when, or if, this will see the light of day.

Would you wear an Apple powered jacket? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

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As the Style and Travel Editor at T3, Spencer covers everything from clothes to cars and watches to hotels. Everything that's cool, stylish, and interesting, basically. He's been a part of T3 for over seven years, and in that time covered every industry event known to man, from CES and MWC to the Geneva Motorshow and Baselworld. When he's driving up and down the country in search of the greatest driving roads, he can be found messing around on an electric scooter, playing with luxury watches, or testing the latest fragrances.

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