A Working Prototype of Flexible Computer Created
The Human Media Lab, Queen's University, Canada, created a working prototype of a flexible smartphone they call PaperPhone. The prototype does everything a smartphone does: stores books, plays music, makes phone calls. But also has a 9.5-cm thin-film flexible E Ink display which makes it much more portable that any current mobile computer, because it shapes with your pocket.
"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."
Being able to store and interact with documents on larger versions of these light, flexible computers means offices will no longer require paper or printers.
"The paperless office is here. Everything can be stored digitally and you can place these computers on top of each other just like a stack of paper, or throw them around the desk," says Dr. Vertegaal.
The invention heralds a new generation of computers that are super lightweight, thin-film and flexible. They use no power when nobody is interacting with them. When users are reading, they don't feel like they're holding a sheet of glass or metal.
The development team included researchers Byron Lahey and Win Burleson of the Motivational Environments Research Group at Arizona State University (ASU), Audrey Girouard and Aneesh Tarun from the Human Media Lab at Queen's University, Jann Kaminski and Nick Colaneri, director of ASU's Flexible Display Center, and Seth Bishop and Michael McCreary, the VP R&D of E Ink Corporation.
Source: Queen's University
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