back to article Apple's latest patent brilliance: the iGlove

The US Patent and Trademark Office yesterday released Apple's most recent application, in which the company files for patent protection for ... wait for it ... a glove. No, not a Power Glove. Patent #20090000010 is for what Apple calls a High tactility glove system designed to aid users in operating their multi-touch devices …

COMMENTS

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  1. Gareth Irwin

    I take it..

    Apple will be using the famous American 'crap-o-rama' patent system to back track this lot amongst others:

    http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/iglove-cold-weather-ipod-gloves-237279.php

  2. rfrovarp
    Thumb Down

    This already exists

    This sort of thing already exists. Those apple people certainly aren't hunters. Some gloves are too big to fit through smaller trigger gloves. So these gloves allow the shooter to take out the trigger finger to shoot.

  3. Jeff C

    giving us the finger?

    That 302/320 illustration must be intentionally obscene - things like that don't happen by accident . . .

  4. fnordianslip

    Hmm ...

    Did you mean 4 months?

    fnord

  5. EdwardP
    Flame

    Stylus?

    Step aside Dyson, there's a new player in town...

  6. Jonathan Walsh
    Flame

    Whats the point

    The operating temperatures for the iphone are 0 - 35 deg C (32 - 95 deg F).

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Hmm ....

    I use a similar system to 'aid tactile feedback' if I have to repair the bike by the roadside when I'm out cycling in cold weather - one pair 'Mountain Equipment' glove-liners (thin enough to allow me to fiddle with spoke keys, chain tools etc. and still keep my hands warm) and one pair 'standard' cycling mitts for grip, extra hand warmth etc.etc. - I have a vague recollection that there are some mountain-biking oriented gloves which have 'removable' fingertips for the same reason (not that I'd know - I'm a roadie ;-) )

    Proof that there's nothing new under the sun, and my soon-to-be-patented 1.5 glove system even allows me to operate my iPod in sub-zero temperatures :-)

    Flames, because I dislike cold hands almost as much as I dislike the USPTO

  8. Les Matthew
    Thumb Up

    Is it just us?

    No.

  9. Efros

    Steptoe gloves

    Old Albert Steptoe used to wear gloves like these, they were also known as miser mitts in my yoof!

    Efros

  10. Eddy Ito
    Paris Hilton

    iGlove for the iPhone??

    Looks more like they're trying to patent the iPrepuce. If that's the case, I think there plenty of cases of multi-touch prior art. Some of them might even be caught on video.

    Paris because... well, for obvideo reasons actually.

  11. Haku
    Boffin

    Glove companion for phone

    I think the best glove I've seen as a companion for a mobile phone is the one Jason Bradbury of The Gadget Show made a few years ago, ripped out the innards of a bluetooth headset and put them into a driving glove - Bluetooth Phone Glove! - mic in the little finger and speaker in the thumb with a button on the back to answer calls.

  12. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Phalic Phools

    The name: iForeskin

  13. Mel
    Jobs Horns

    As stated - Already exists.

    Hunters gloves. No bad Apple! No!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    power glove

    i luv the power glove... it's so bad

    I also love the reference XD

  15. Tom

    but surely if you've got an iPod

    then gloves are not really your style.....something more showily expensive and no more functional will have to be invented.

    How about gloves which flash 'I've got an iPod' as you wave them about, or perhaps ones that can spot people who arent impressed by electronic personality enhancers so they can go over to them and make sure they know who the new generation of trainspotters is?

  16. Jeremy
    Paris Hilton

    Re: Hmm ... (the first one)

    Erm, no. Learn to count. Unless that is, May 1st has some special significance for practical jokers in your part of the world.

  17. Solomon Grundy

    Old News in the Ski World

    http://www.snowshack.com/detail/SNW+M-02274+L_Marmot+Women%27s+iGlove+Ski%2FSnowboard+Multi+Black

    Nifty whicky-do's on the thumbs and index fingers allow full control of your iPod.

    Apple is gay for not doing their research - there are at least three other similar products.

  18. David

    @fnordianslip

    Why? How is May Day relevant to this story? Something to do with freedom of the workers from cold fingers while operating their iPods?

  19. M. Burns Silver badge
    Boffin

    @rfrovarp & @Mel

    Not just for hunters. I own a pair of cold weather gloves/mitts that allow the finger ends on all fingers (& thumb separately) to be peeled back for dexterity.

    Like these: http://tinyurl.com/7l7238

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

  21. Jon Axtell
    Paris Hilton

    High tech version

    Surprised they didn't go for a high tech version using some haptic feedback on the finger tips to confirm a touch. Place a sensor on the outside of the glove finger wired to a piezo widget on the inside. The piezo vibrates a bit when the sensor registers a touch. A small button battery on the back of the glove. Job done! :-)

    Paris cause she knows something about vibrations!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Fingered Mittens

    Mountain gloves; from I think Craigmore Sports in Aberdeen.... half length gloves which protect the middle and proximal phalanges; and large 'mitten' type flap to protect the distal phalanges. Keeps fingers warm all the time; and when required for fidding with tent pegs, camping equipment allows improved dexterity.

    Anyhow I thought Apple were taking the Wii approach to input gestures. Flick of the wrist to switch on... over-arm bowl to send email... now that would be fun to watch on the train....

  23. Mike Laverick
    Jobs Horns

    Apple iBrick

    Surely its way to early for April's Fool?

    Personally, I've been waiting for Apple to produce the iBrick. It's one brick shapped device that has the same capacity as my iPOD classic with all the wizz-bang features of the iPhone - with 3G and TomTom on it - oh, a connection to my mail a la blackberry... Then I could get rid of my other devices. Then I need a massive insurance policy if i left it on a train as it would have my whole life on it...

    You heard hear first remember - the Apple iBrick...

    Regards

    Mike Laverick

    RTFM Education

  24. Doug Glass
    Go

    Oh How Cute!

    A glove for the fruit in your life; must make Michael Jackson proud. "What do Michael Jackson and Apple have in common? They both have one glove and ... uh ... never mind.

  25. raving angry loony

    @fnordianslip

    Um, no, they mean 3 months. Use your fingers to count it, that might help you...

  26. Andus McCoatover
    Paris Hilton

    Living as I do...

    ..in the frozen wasteland of Oulu, Finland, and (had, till it was nicked) an eee701 in my coat pocket, I decided the best way to use it when it's fuc*king cold - like today, at -15C - was to pop into the nearest bar and warm up first.

    Gordon sodding Bennett, much easier and less embarrasing than pulling an elecronic condom over your 'wife's best friend'. Strewth, if the bloody thing's powered by a Sony battery...Jeez! Warm as toast!

    Paris, 'cos she knows how to warm extremeties.

  27. Andus McCoatover
    Coat

    Oh, sod it.

    I'll patent "iWank"©

    Gissit. It's the one with the name "Dick Staines" permanently written in the lapel.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    American Patent System =

    American Patent System =Throw enough s--t at the wall and something will stick, just need enough cash to keep hurling turd.

  29. Jeremy
    Joke

    El Reg, will you please...

    ...take this filthy thing off the iconified call-out slot on the front page? You're NSFWing the whole bloody front page!

  30. mario
    Flame

    I-diot L-user

    hehehe, go on apple, patent the Iuser as well. Protect your exclusive rights to market to idiots.

  31. Mark Broadhurst
    Jobs Horns

    Minority Report

    Reminds me of the gloves Tom Crusie wore in in minority report with out the technology.

  32. Eddy Ito

    Where's the iSmegma?

    I just did a quick google patent search and I am rather shocked at the number of glove with finger hole patents there are. The scariest has to be patent 2725570, which is clearly designed as a device for the torture or ladies.

    No matter, it will flop once it comes out that "I'm a Mac" has an iNfection from fingering "I'm a PC."

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    remove outer shell...

    so lets get this right.... you in some freezing cold place, your struggling to hold onto the non-stick iphone in gloved hands and youe somehow got to remove the outersell from the end of the fingertip?

    which tit thought that system up?

  34. Doug Glass
    Paris Hilton

    Fingering Fool

    Just get one of these and finger away into total bliss.

    http://www.copsplus.com/prodnum2374.php

    Paris because if anybody understands the finger she does.

  35. D. M

    Patent System is FUBARed

    As the title said. anyway, I want to patent iDiot and iTard.

  36. xjy
    Paris Hilton

    Oulu

    Oulu is NOT a frozen wasteland! It's a frozen paradise. And -15 is perfectly normal for this time of year. Now -30 or below, and you're talking. I don't think Andus has been living there too long... ;-)

    Agree about the bar tip though - as long as you don't end up flat on your back from the ice furrows on the pavement on the way there, and haven't gone mad in the midday night...

    Oh, and don't chill your Koskenkorva by leaving it out on the balcony - one swallow and your insides turn to ice - like the bad new terminator in Terminator 2.

    (Paris cos my insides would probably turn to ice if she so much as looked at me.)

  37. Brian Milner

    I've had a pair of these for some years

    Made by Barbour from neoprene, so they keep hands warm even if wet. The thumb, forefinger and middle finger can peel back and velcro tabs keep them there.

    As used by the SAS!

    I hope I don't owe Apple any money for this.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Re: I've had a pair of these for some years

    "Made by Barbour from neoprene, so they keep hands warm even if wet. The thumb, forefinger and middle finger can peel back and velcro tabs keep them there"

    So if anything, Apple may owe Barbour some money ... I like to think there's a certain irony in that. If they don't cough, we'll send the SAS after 'em :-)

    The wax one, ta ...

  39. Andus McCoatover
    Thumb Up

    @xjy

    Kymmenen vuotta Oulussa! (10 years in Oulu!)

    And, yes I agree, it's a true paradise ;-) Barring Tuira, the district in which I live. See you in Merikulma?

  40. Sam Turner

    iMuff

    I keep both hands and iThing inside a hollowed-out stoat. There's an element of guesswork to the user interface, and I look like I'm having a furtive fiddle, but it's a small price to pay for toastie fingertips.

  41. Fred Goldstein
    Alert

    Not a patent yet

    What Apple filed was a Preliminary Patent. You can tell by the number, which begins with the year; real patents are in a single sequence. It is not a granted patent, and has not been reviewed by the USPTO yet. It's more of a record of invention. By filing a PP, the inventor can establish a date trail, but then they have to file the real patent application within a year. Then the USPTO decides whether or not to grant it. To be sure, they've granted so awfully daft and unworthy patents lately, but this one is not yet among them.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: iMuff

    Simply add a hole in the middle of the iMuff and when you wish to see the iPhone

    you merely spread apart the sides of the muff to reveal the screen thereby removing

    the guesswork.

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    guess this means...

    ...they've given up trying to (were they ever trying?) let us use our i${DEVICENAME} with normal gloves on, and instead expect us to pull back our fore...finger on the iGlove thus exposing ourselves to localised frostbite.

    Jobs, because by late spring his fingers will once again be too fat to use his iphone.

  44. Andrew Kemp
    Thumb Down

    Ahh, the mighty touch...

    So this is their solution to the fact that because they use a capacitance screen, it needs the charge drain detection of a 'body part', i.e. a finger. As opposed to a resistance touch screen that would continue to work...

  45. J

    @ Andus McCoatover

    Hey Andus from Oulou,

    do I know you as Seymour Bybus on other forums?

  46. ShaggyDoggy

    Patents

    It doesn't matter if it's been in use for 200 years.

    It matters whether nobody PATENTED it already.

    DOH ... you should know that.

  47. lardheppus
    Coat

    Turn your head and iCough

    Mine's the one with the jar of Vaseline in the pocket.

  48. Andus McCoatover

    Seymour Bybus

    Yep. T'is I. NSN. Got me banged to rights....Gi's a shout - if you're about!

  49. Chris Hewitt
    Alert

    How far behind the curve?

    I bought these in 2007

    http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog/tnf-catalog-master/etip-glove.html?parent_category_rn=

  50. J
    Thumb Up

    @ Andus McCoatover aka Seymour Bybus

    Sorry I blew your cover. Jazz Cafe is not the same without you.

    Good to hear you are gainfully employed, will be stalking your comments on ElReg from now on ;)

    One

  51. Michele Kotlarsky
    Jobs Halo

    Love it!

    I was just saying today in the frigid Michigan weather I could use a glove that my iPhone would recognize my finger !! handy gadget!

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