14 DAY TRIAL // In 2007, Apple filed a patent application involving actual clothing for its customers. Particularly, the company behind the revolutionary iPhone applied for an invention called “High tactility glove system.” Published only recently, the system is most likely aimed at the iPhone and iPod touch, even though the filing had taken place before the original iPhone was unveiled.
The US Patent & Trademark Office reveals that a glove for use with an electronic device, “comprising of an inner liner and an outer shell” is what Apple has in mind for customers living in the northern hemisphere. Within one embodiment of the invention, “At least one portion of the outer shell comprises an aperture operative to allow a portion of the inner liner to protrude from the outer shell,” the document shows. Apple's abstract description of the invention goes as follows: This invention is directed to a glove system for operating an electronic device. The glove system may include an inner liner and an outer shell. The liner may be formed from any suitable material, including a material that is thin, electrically conductive, has low thermal conductivity, and/or has an 'anti-sticky' finish. The outer shell may include at least one aperture through which the inner liner may extend to operate the input mechanism of an electronic device (e.g., on at least one finger tip).
In some embodiments, the aperture may be at a finger tip of the outer shell. In some embodiments, a closing mechanism may be used to maintain the aperture closed when the user is not operating the electronic device. For example, an elastic ring may surround the aperture such that, in its non-deformed state, the aperture is substantially closed. The user may elastically deform the ring to allow the liner to pass through the outer shell.
Interestingly, sketches of the invention included with the filing (first picture) reveal that Apple's “invention” is not too different from others' idea of touch solutions for iPhone users living in cold areas (second picture). In fact, some have been selling such gloves for quite some time. Evidently, they use the very system Apple is considering to adopt.
