Apple may be planning to integrate small projectors into future Macs and iOS devices. According to reports that on August 11, 2011, Apple has been granted a patent by the US Patent & Trademark Office that will allow them to integrate small projectors into future mobile devices.

The patent finding revels pico-like projectors for iOS devices and how these projectors will work with a shared workspace in presentations and the patent clearly shows how Apple could integrate projectors into iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks.

The patent even suggests Apple cameras will be able to detect gestures and “shadows and/or silhouettes.”

One of the wilder aspects to Apple’s advanced camera 30 that will be used in this new system is being designed to detect gestures in the form of shadows and/or silhouettes shown on the projected display created by projector 16. For example, the camera may be designed to detect spatial patterns, such as shadows, produced on the projected display. The camera may also be designed to detect movement of an object, such as hand, that produces gestures within the viewing area of the camera.

Patent also describes Apple’s “Shared Projected Workspace”, which
could allow user to transfer and/or copy content to another projected display within the shared workspace.

The electronic devices may include a library of gestures that correspond to image sharing commands. For example, different gestures may represent different image sharing commands, such as an image transfer command for moving an image from one projected display to another projected display and an image copy command for displaying a copy of an image on one projected display on another projected display. To share images between projected displays, a user may perform a gesture with respect to the projected displays. The camera for the electronic device producing that projected display may detect the gesture, and in turn, the electronic device may interpret the gesture and perform the associated image sharing command.

Although, this isn’t the first time Apple has filed projector concepts patent. There are more details about this patent at Patently Apple.