Leave it to Canadians to develop some uber technology right? Queens University announced today the PaperPhone, a super thin smartphone that they describe as ‘a bendable iPhone’. Here’s the description:
PaperPhone is the world’s first nextgen, thin film smartphone and interactive paper computer. It is based on a 3.7″ flexible electrophoretic (E Ink) display that does not consume electricity when it is not refreshed. Thinfilm sensors allow the phone to respond to bending of the screen to navigate pages in ebooks, play or pause mp3s, make phone calls, or navigate apps. A flexible wacom tablet allows users to draw on the screen with a pen as if it were a sheet of paper.
The creator feels this is the upcoming future of smartphones:
“This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years,†says creator Roel Vertegaal, the director of Queen’s University Human Media Lab,. “This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper. You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen.â€
Pretty neat stuff. The PaperPhone will be unveiled at the Computer Human-Interaction (CHI) 2011 conference later this week in Vancouver. Definitely a cool invention. As to whether or not this will be implemented into the consumer market, we’ll just have to wait and see!
What do you think of this super thin design? Check out the following video demo:
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bend gestures? I can’t see much real use out of it. Now, thin, flexible, low-power and durable screens – awesome.
agreed the bending is pretty slow and i cant see this lasting long over timen. If they added a touch component, which the DOD is working on, they want a wearable computer. They have one now but it relies on key entry. Hell a small camera in the front and you can incorporate hand gestures.
How is it a bendable iPhone? It is running Android…
they talked about this on the beat
Awesome, but not practical. Seems like it takes FOREVER to bend through a navigation system, and by the time you find a contact, you’ll forget why you called them.
Love the design. Hate the bend “gestures”. That’s not gonna fly.
hope it comes with a flexible calling plan too.