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.

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.

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.

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]