Apple Watch band may change colour based on your outfit in future

IANS

San Francisco, February 22

Apple is researching how to add a colour change function to the Apple Watch band that matches the wearer’s clothing and alerts the wearer to information.

According to AppleInsider, a newly-granted patent appears to show it doing just that.

Instead of purchasing multiple watch bands to match different outfits, “Watch Band With Adjustable Colour” suggests that users purchase just one that changes colour.

“Users may desire the ability to customise their watch bands to express variety and style,” according to the newly-granted patent.

“For example, a user may desire a watch band of a particular colour based on the user’s selection of clothing, other wearable articles, environment, or another preference,” it added.

Apple’s patent describes the idea by referring to Watch bands with “electrochromic features”, meaning that “an applied voltage” can cause “a variety of colours and colour combinations to be displayed by a single band”.

Moreover, the report said, while the patent attempts to describe every possible use of its core idea, the central examples revolve around bands that are made from a fabric which is itself woven from filaments.

“Some or all of the filaments can include electrochromic features. For example, one or more of the filaments can include a conductor and an electrochromic layer,” Apple was quoted as saying.

“The electrochromic layer can be electrically connected to the conductor so that voltage applied to the conductor is communicated to the electrochromic layer. The electrochromic layer can include a polymer layer… (which) can react, in the presence of an applied voltage, to change its colour, as described further herein,” it added.

The tech giant further stated that, “the colour selections can be made and adjusted without removing and exchanging the watch band. Accordingly, a variety of colours can be displayed at different times without requiring different watch bands for each colour or colour combination”.

The patent is credited to four inventors, three of whom previously worked on research for touch-sensitive fabrics for a future HomePod — Zhengyu Li, Chia Chi Wu, and Qiliang Xu, the report mentioned.