On August 11th Apple was granted a patent application by the US Patent & Trademark Office which hints at Apple’s upcoming plans to possibly incorporate projectors into future iOS devices.

The rumor d’jour at the moment is that Apple might release the iPhone 5 with a built-in projector.

Patently Apple, states, “The level of detail associated with this patent would suggest that Apple’s development teams are moving full steam ahead on the projection system project“.

Don’t laugh, it could happen. Just last week MacRumors discovered that Apple had purchased the Applepico.com domain name.

DigiTimes is quick to point out “sources from pico projector makers pointed out that the related R&D is still not mature and demand from consumers has yet to appear, so smartphone-use pico projector modules are unlikely to start mass shipping until after 2012.”

It’ll be interesting to see when Apple unveils their first iOS device with a built-in projector, even if it’s not the iPhone 5.

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