PaperPhone: Flexible Smartphone Makes Calls, Plays Music When You Bend It (VIDEO)

Justin Meyers

Apple's iPhone is considered one of the best smartphones in the world. Many cell phone makers have tried to take down the juggernaut, with some Android-based devices coming close, but in order to become an actual iPhone killer, something revolutionary needs to happen in the mobile world. And Human Media Lab (HML) may be the ones to make it happen.

The lab at Queen's University in Canada has designed the world's first interactive paper computer, where flexibility replaces rigidness. The smartphone prototype is aptly named PaperPhone, and consists of a super thin, bendable film E Ink display that measures 3.7 inches (9.5 cm). It's not exactly made from paper, but it sure acts like it with a comparable thickness.

Its electrophoretic display does not consume electricity unless refreshed, and the thinfilm resistive sensors in the flexible circuit respond to bends in the screen. You can play music files, make phone calls, navigate though eBooks, and play games just by performing a simple bend function. Roel Vertegaal, director of HML states, "You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen."

"This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years."

Is it the future of smartphone technology? Can something that bends and conforms to your pocket really replace current mobile devices? See for yourself... It might just revolutionize the world of interactive computing, making mobile devices even more 'mobile'.

Dr. Vertegaal is set to reveal this paper phone technology at CHI 2011--the premier international conference of human-computer interaction--on May 10th in Vancouver. Check out the full scientific article to be presented at the conference, which explains the entire project and covers in detail the bend gestures and how they work.

They've also developed a flexible Snaplet--a wristband computer that senses its shape and acts much like the PaperPhone. Here's the article that covers all the details.

Via World's First Bend-Sensitive Flexible Smartphone on WonderHowTo.

Comments

[planetjeffy]

01:20 AM on 05/08/2011

sixth sense is much cooler and about as far along

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQEHtvNsfKE&feature=related

[Seth Blystone]

04:54 PM on 05/06/2011

Apple's next product will likely have a roll-out flexible screen.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... The iScroll!"

*applause*

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

03:21 PM on 05/06/2011

And in 10 year Apple will come out with an iWrist flexible personal tech device and claim they came up withthe concept...just like with the tablet computer and just like with the smart phone.

[DarleenMB]

05:29 PM on 05/06/2011

I do not believe they have claimed any such thing.

[GeorgieMark]

10:02 AM on 05/06/2011

I remember a few years ago (long before Apple and Google arrived at the scene) Nokia released a video of a concept phone called Morph a collaboration with the University of Cambridge; this eerily reminds me of what Nokia presented at the time, although no working prototype was ever shown or alleged to have ever existed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX-gTobCJHs

[lolyla]

09:59 AM on 05/06/2011

Sometimes I cringe at how hard I've just hit my watch on a surface. Do that with this product and you could accidently phone Belarus.

[Benjamin Rosenfeld]

09:08 AM on 05/06/2011

It's still too big. The ideal size would be that of a credit card.

[Smirk]

05:23 AM on 05/06/2011

O, Canada! Very impressive.

[theveggiedude]

02:44 AM on 05/06/2011

Many of these are bound to break and then they'll have a class action lawsuit on their hands.

[PubicOption]

07:52 PM on 05/05/2011

Two words:

PANTS DIALING

[cynicalmatt]

02:36 PM on 05/05/2011

Holographic phones will be cooler.

[ykk9]

02:07 PM on 05/05/2011

If this leads to a tablet that you can fold up, put in your pocket and make phone calls with; count me in.

[JohnSawyer]

01:54 PM on 05/05/2011

9.5 centimeters thick? It's not even 9.5 millimeters thick. I wonder what unit of measurement the article's author intended the 9.5 to refer to.

[Mitchman57]

02:05 PM on 05/05/2011

CM, good catch. Looks like the battery area is about 10mm.

[JohnSawyer]

02:17 PM on 05/05/2011

Closer to about 5mm. Remember 10mm is a centimeter, which is about 3/8 inch.

[SonOfUgh]

07:32 PM on 05/05/2011

The 9.5 cm refers to the screen size (measured diagonally). My television is a 36" TV because it is 36" from the top left corner of the screen to the bottom right corner; not because it is 3 feet thick.

[JohnSawyer]

01:05 AM on 05/06/2011

HP seems to have updated/fixed the article (at 6:24 pm ET apparently). When it first appeared, it said the device was 9.5 cm thick.