A Smidgeon of Truth In Lame Laser Keyboard iPhone 5 Rumor

Bored with its own rumors, the iPhone 5 rumor mill is trying out unfounded rumors that the new iPhone will have a projected laser keyboard. For as lame and improbable as this rumor is, it is not completely unfounded.
One of the coolest iPhone 5 concept videos out there has to be the one that depicts the new iPhone with a projectable laser keyboard. Once (or if) the iPhone comes equipped with the ability to beam a full-sized keyboard onto any flat surface, it could finally put to rest the complaints of the sometimes frustrating typing experience on smartphones, and even remake the iPhone into a more work- and business-oriented mobile device. One can dream.
Or, if you run a tech blog, you can claim that it’s coming to the iPhone 5.

Surfing the latest iPhone 5 news, I came across this article from a rather dodgy website called World News Resource, who somehow managed to get themselves syndicated into the Google News aggregate. Their claim is that the projected laser beam concept is coming to the iPhone 5: “According to an as-yet unnamed source, the iPhone 5 will offer a truly revolutionary onboard projector, which can be used as a virtual keyboard. Of course, the concept itself is not revolutionary by any means, but rumor has it that the quality and accuracy of that to be boasted by the iPhone 5 will really take the whole idea to the next level and beyond.”
For as fantastical as this claim is, World News Resource appears to have put an expiration date on their new laser keyboard rumor: “As such, if Apple really is planning on launching an iPhone 5 with a high-end projector built in and world-leading laser keyboard technology, chances are there will be talltale [sic] signs of this all over iOS 6.0.” Indeed — considering that iOS 6 is most likely bound to arrive in just a few weeks, this rumor will most likely be exploded by then.
Normally, I wouldn’t bore you with a rumor that has virtually no chance of coming to fruition. But I thought it was worth noting because, for as much as the projector and laser keyboard seems too next-generation to appear on the iPhone 5, the technology itself already exists.
You’ve already heard about pico projectors. Pico projectors were once even briefly rumored for the iPhone 5. The technology features a high-definition mini projector that can project the screen imagine on any flat surface. This would allow an iPhone user to watch video and do presentations on any spare wall. The Samsung Galaxy Beam is already offering this feature, but has failed to make much of a splash with it. To be sure, an iPhone 5 with a pico projector would help to mainstream the feature, but the pico projector is a far cry from the rumored laser keyboard, which in itself is an interactive holograph.
But believe it or not, laser keywords for mobile devices already exist as well.
I did a quick Google search for “laser keyboard” and almost immediately unearthed this gadget on Think Geek. It is essentially the same laser keyboard outlined in iPhone 5 concept videos, as well as the lame, new rumor. No telling how reliable it actually is, however, and the main problem is that the projection unit is pretty much the same size of the iPhone itself. That being said, it’s interesting to note that, as we have seen Cupertino take ideas and make them better in the past, so too could we imagine eventually melding pico projectors and laser keyboards into a future iPhone release — maybe even the iPhone 6? One can dream.
But in the meantime, I wouldn’t expect the laser keyboard showing up on the iPhone 5. Apple will have its hands full with a bigger screen, 4G LTE, and possibly even NFC.