We're just as annoyed as you are when certain rumor sites claim that Apple is on the verge of selling a new gadget just because it has submitted a patent application. After all, a large company will patent every idea it has, just in case. It's like that junk-drawer in the kitchen, full of things you may need one day.
This little filing, although far from being made (and surely far from being a patentable idea) is worth a look. It shows MacBooks with pico projectors, those tiny little projectors that sit inside cellphones, cameras and even matchbox-sized standalone packages.
The filing's diagrams show the projectors in various places on the notebook's body, although to us the most useful seems to be the one on the top of the lid, on the opposite side to the iSight webcam. This would allow you to beam an image of your boring business presentation whilst reading every word on the PowerPoint slide. It would also let you fold the lid almost shut and project the latest 30 Rock onto the ceiling as you lie in bed.
The filing adds some extras, such as sensors which would detect the position of the surfaces around the MacBook and process the image to fall square, even if coming from an angle. I'm all in on this one, although I doubt we'll see it for some years, if ever. It's not something you'd use every day, but if it is built-in, why not have it?
Apple Illustrates Pico Projector Coming to MacBooks [Patently Apple]
Portable Computing System With a Secondary Image Output [USPTO]
