Apple's next major OS X enhancement: 3D

Another Apple patent application has surfaced thanks to the Baltimore Sun. It regards the rumoured 3D interface for a forthcoming OS enhancement.

The 3D images, or "virtual objects," that can be generated include an icon, a virtual game object or a virtual game character. Basically, your icons and characters on this device will have a three-dimensional quality in a two-dimensional space, which could lead to novel ways of interacting with the device.

The development opportunities are huge.

I'm thinking an Apple device will have some kind of camera facing the user and can track their face, much like the remarkable wiimote hack the circulated a few years back. It essentially turns a display into a window into another world:

(Skip to 2:47 for the good bit)

The problem with it being on a television is that this only works for one person, the current user. For a personal device like the iSlate or iPhone this wouldn't be a problem, as it's usually a personal device.

I wonder if a huge GUI change like this is the right time for Apple to rebrand their system beyond the OS X series?

Update: How could I forget - having a user-facing camera means we'll finally have iChat video face to face over all our devices. Could Apple try to cut out the phone networks?