An Apple TV with a 3D interface is currently being developed by the Apple company, or at least that's what a patent assigned to it yesterday by the US Patent and Trademark Office tells us. Last year Apple has acquired PrimeSense, the company that developed the technology that was the basis of the Kinect sensors and a good part of its invention patents are now reassigned to those of Apple, the one we are talking about today being part of them.
As you can see from the image above, we are talking about a system that is capable of projecting a 3D interface in front of the user, which can be controlled by means of gestures made in front of a sensor. The assignment of this patent to Apple reveals the fact that in Cupertino someone thought that an Apple TV with a 3D interface or maybe even a Mac and iDevice with such an interface could be useful for hundreds of millions of people on the planet.
The invention patent describe the technology behind the system, but the components needed to assemble it, Apple still employing the PrimeSense angels who developed the first Kinect. Although at the moment it is not known for sure if Apple will manage to produce a system interesting enough to convince the whole world that an Apple TV with a 3D interface or maybe even a Mac would be worth the hundreds of dollars that those in Cupertino would ask for, I think that we will hear enough about such products soon.
