Apple could be working on a virtual projector
Apple's next big thing might not be an iPhone. It might not even have a screen.
![Apple could be working on a virtual projector](https://www.shortlist.com/media/imager/201905/25920-posts.article_md.jpg)
Apple's next big thing might not be an iPhone. It might not even have a screen.
At least, not if this patent is anything to go by.
Patently Apple spotted that the Californian tech company had been granted a new patent for an "Adaptive Projector": a camera and projector unit that can scan a room before projecting images onto surrounding surfaces. The user would then be able to interact with the projected interfaces - both with and without accompanying smartglasses.
So imagine a cross between the computer interactions of Minority Report with added Google Glass, and you're not far off.
![](https://www.shortlist.com/media/images/2019/05/9aef83c9904ffb528f9bc2bded744ee2-1556727146-4aLE-column-width-inline.jpg)
Another aspect of the projector sees it work with accompanying glasses, which would also be able to project false images onto the world around them - in a manner similar to Microsoft's artificial reality HoloLens.
![](https://www.shortlist.com/media/images/2019/05/ce31efaf467412c0121be2dd3fe816f2-1556727146-3gsR-column-width-inline.jpg)
The patent was filed back in 2012, coming to light now, just weeks after a similar patent for a similar adaptive projector.
While Apple may well be playing around with augmented reality tech, there's a chance that any ideas developed at a research phase for which patents were filed could have been scrapped in the last three years. But with virtual reality and augmented reality likely to be a major player in 2016's tech launches, you can expect Apple to have something up their shiny sleeves.
[Via: Patently Apple]