The iPhone 5 has been a major success financially, but a great number of media outlets and consumers all felt that Apple's latest phone lacked the surprise factor that previous phones had.
The next iPhone is likely due out next year, but little information has been included about how it could alter the medium. InventHelp's Nickolay Lamm has secured recent patent filings of Apple and utilized some of the ideas to create 3D renderings of what upcoming iPhones could look like.
"I feel that the sales success of the iPhone 5 overlooks the fact that it was a pretty boring phone," Lamm said. "I looked at all of Apple's recent patents and chose four which Apple may include in the iPhone 6 or later version. I then hired a 3D graphic designer to illustrate each of these patents so that the illustrations were as realistic as possible. I gave him very specific guidelines to follow."
The 3D renderings were made by graphic designer Matteo Gianni and include four different possibilities. One of the phones is a projector phone which would project images and could even transfer information across devices with different gestures.
Another model has a smart bezel around the LCD screen to help compensate for some of the problems that touch screens can induce.
A third model hints at an E-Ink/LCD screen to help save battery life and a final model includes transparent screen with two cameras to present two different images at once. For example, the patent makes reference to a museum visit. One camera would display a painting while the front, transparent screen would present information on the painting in text. This would provide for an augmented reality.