Apple Explores Touch-Sensitive Textiles After Debuting Fabric iPhone Cases, Watch Bands

After venturing into custom fabrics with FineWoven iPhone 15 cases and Apple Watch bands, Apple is looking ahead to futuristic textiles. 

A newly released patent application shows Apple’s interest in embedding touch controls or motion detectors into cloth, effectively creating a smart fabric. Touch screens are rigid, according to Apple, and “limited to certain form factors.” A “fabric sensing device” would allow Apple to add controls and be more free-flowing in design. 

The patent application includes an illustration showing a user touching their shirt to control a device. The depicted gesture shows the user poking at the sleeve covering their wrist, also indicating potential for a smart Apple Watch band.

Apple could be interested in touch-sensitive fabric as an alternative to the materials it currently has on hand, including FineWoven, the leather alternative it released earlier this month. While Apple touted the 68% postconsumer recycled content in FineWoven, iPhone 15 cases made with the material have received a lukewarm reception. 

Apple covered its bases in its patent application by mentioning many other use cases for touch-sensitive textiles not directly linked to its current products, including “articles of clothing, clothing accessories, handbags, upholstered items, household textiles, and other items that may include a textile component or element."

This isn’t Apple’s first patent application on smart fabrics. The same three inventors credited in this application, Daniel A. Podhajny, Kathryn P. Crews, and Daniel D. Sunshine, were also behind Apple’s earlier explorations into touch-sensitive textiles.