If you thought that the iPhone was the game-changer, here's something to prove you are wrong.
A bunch of Canadian researchers have invented a a smartphone prototype which is paper-thin, flexible and has a low-powered e-ink touchscreen display (Amazon's Kindle also uses an e-Ink display). The phone can be rolled up to fit into your pocket.
So, we won't have broken glass on our phone anymore and no extra weight in our pockets.
The PaperPhone will be officially be unveiled at the Association of Computing Machinery's CHI 2011 in Vancouver, Canada by Roel Vertegaal—an associate professor of Computer Science and director of the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Canada.
In an exclusive interview, Vertegaal said, "This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years. The 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. This is not a maybe. This is a definite. This is what your phone will look like."
The prototype developed does absolutely everything a normal smartphone can do. It can store e-books, play music, make phone calls, etc. This futuristic phone is as thin as a credit card and is much more flexible than one! It has a 9.5 cm diagonal screen and is one-sixth the weight of Apple's latest iteration of the iPhone. The smartphone is very robust ("You can hit it with a hammer," Vertegaal says) and uses less electricity to charge itself.
Instead of pushing buttons, the user has to bend the phone to navigate. If the phone is bent on both sides, an application is opened up. If you dog-ear the top right corner, the next page will come up.
But, along with such next-gen features, there are a few problems, as well. While the flexible board circuit was used for the bendable input and power, the processor and other rigid electronics had to be attached via an external handle to the phone. The next factor is the price. The prototype alone costs about $7000-$10000 to produce.
But, Vertegaal says that price won't be an issue in the next 10 years or so since the product will eventually go mainstream and cost of production will eventually decrease for a normal, middle-class consumer.
This invention marks a whole new era in the history of computing. Computers that are lightweight, flexible and that use absolutely no power when not being used is an idea a geek could only think of in his dreams.
Cool. A roll up phone would be ideal. With the invention of the waterproof roll up keyboard, a waterproof roll up phone only makes sense. I certainly hope that we see this soon at an affordable price.
I saw the same 'proto-type' you are talking about. They were discussing its uses as a reusable envelope. A ways away from a phone.
You need more then a screen to make a phone. You need antenna's to talk to cell towers, batteries to power the antenna's. A paper-thin phone will happen one day, probably, but not anytime in the foreseeable future.
Last edited by Jeremy1026; 05-08-2011 at 08:00 PM.
i have heard of this sort of idea for a while, and from the OP it sounds as though it is still not even there- it does say that all rigid components needed to be on a handle off the rollable plate.
Plus no buttons? are you crazy! the way of opening an app and turning the page as suggested sounds horrible - what about typing an email...
Could you imagine holding a piece of paper to your ear to talk into? it would be flopping all over the place and be a nightmare to use - hands free or headphones (could it have headphones??) are a poor substitute.
Those ink displays should never have been invented - full stop. They look tacky, horrible and are a pain in the *** to use. Reading on the iPad is much much much easier to do than reading off a kindle - and guess what? My iPad screen is bigger so i can read more at once...
Sorry to be the depressive voice here but i just think this idea - while amazing from a technology advancement point of view - is nothing that could be marketed. By the time we get to these being on the shelves we will have star trek communicators.
p.s. dont forget that this "weighs nothing and paper thin" phone could easily slip into the wrong pile of papers on your desk and end up in the bin - sometimes there are advantages to being bigger and heavier :P
After iPhone, Here's The PaperPhone!!!
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