Apple releases ‘Smart Garment’ patent
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Sep 11, 2008 at 1:11pm
A new Apple patent might should be dubbed iWear. Well, maybe not but it does indicate a future, clothing oriented upgrade of the Nike + system used with the iPod.
An Apple patent (number 20080218310) for a “Smart Garment” has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. It involves a method of electronically pairing a sensor and a garment, comprising:(a) establishing a communication link between the sensor and the garment;(b) determining if the garment is an authorized garment; and© electronically pairing the garment and the sensor.
The invention relates generally to performance monitoring. More particularly, methods and apparatus electronically pairing an authorized garment and a sensor that receives data from the garment are disclosed. The patent is for a sensor authenticated to a garment transfers information, either wirelessly or wired, to an external data processing device. Such information includes location information, physiometric data of the individual wearing the garment, garment performance and wear data (when the garment is an athletic shoe, for example). The external data processing device can be portable digital media players that are, in turn, in wireless communication with a server computer or other wireless devices.”
Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “An embodiment of this invention pertains to linking an authenticated sensor with one or more authorized garments (such as running shoes, shirts, slacks, etc.) that can provide in addition to current physiologic data of the user, garment performance statistics (i.e., rate of wear of a running shoe), location of the garment and any related information (location of near-by eating establishments, for example) and any other garment related data. In one embodiment, the sensor can be authenticated for use with a particular garment using, for example, an identification device (such as an RFID type device). In this way, only an authenticated sensor can be used to provide information to the wearer of the garment.
“The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a method, system, or computer readable medium. Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below. One embodiment of the invention is a method of electronically pairing a sensor and a garment. The method can include, for example, at least: establishing a communication link between the sensor and the garment and electronically pairing the garment and the sensor only if the garment is authorized to be paired with the sensor.
“As computer program product, another embodiment of the invention includes at least: computer code for establishing a communication link between the sensor and the garment, computer code for determining if the garment is an authorized garment, and computer code for electronically pairing the garment and the sensor only if the garment is authorized to do so.
“As an electronic consumer product system, yet another embodiment of the invention includes, for example, at least: a sensor, and a garment electronically paired with the sensor, wherein the sensor receives data from the garment and passes a portion of the data to an external circuit for further processing.”
The inventors are Brett G. Alten and Robert Edward Borchers. illustrates an example of a physiologic data-gathering device (sensor) in the form of sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
