IPhone 6 hologram

Like a holodeck in your pocket. Video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET

Over the years, I've taken some heat for saying that the iPhone jumped the shark years ago or predicting that the iPhone 6 will be more run of the mill than a runaway hit. So far, I've yet to see anything on the horizon that will prompt me to eat those words someday soon, except maybe if this crazy holographic iPhone 6 concept miraculously came to market.

Put together by yet another Italian design outfit - this time the Set Solution - the concept imagines a new iPhone with holographic projectors on the side that allow the user to interact with projected screens alongside the physical display. Also demonstrated is how a vertically projected hologram might be used for applications like 3D gaming.

This actually isn't the first holographic iPhone concept we've seen. The projected keyboard has long been on smartphone addicts' wish lists, and holographic images were also a dream feature suggested in advance of the iPhone 5 release.

It's hard to imagine how this comes to fruition in the iPhone 6 or any other smartphone on the horizon in a manner that's both easy to mass-produce quickly and not cost prohibitive. Then again, it sure doesn't hurt to dream.