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Canadian Researchers Create Thin-Film Flexible Paperphone
fergus07 writes "Researchers from the Human Media Lab at Canada's Queen's University have created a fully-functioning floppy E-Ink smartphone, which they also refer to as a paper computer. Like its thicker, rigid-bodied counterparts, the Paperphone can do things like making and receiving calls, storing e-books, and playing music. Unlike them, however, it conforms to the shape of its user's pocket or purse, and can even be operated through bending actions."
Floppies are dead; don't you read?
That's a real stylish watch there.. It'll go with my Elton John glasses
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
is that it doesn't break if you drop it.
think about it.
but the problem with current screens is just the stupid gorilla smudge glass on top. resistive plastic screens are more sturdy to drops and bends of the frame.
and this prototype is lame, lame lame lame.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I seriously doubt that this is where smart-phone technology is headed. However, this technology is pretty cool, and there will definitely be many applications of this technology. Maybe foldable/flexible e-books? Maybe Apple will find some novel use for this tech.
What about the porn/self-abuse market? It can respond to, uh, gestures, your rigid touch screen couldn't dream of.
There's a few things wrong with this prototype.
1. No touch screen. Sure, "bend gestures" are an interesting idea, but that doesn't make up for the lack of touch screen. Touch screens are standard equipment on all of today's smartphones for a reason -- it's super easy to use. I'm not sure what would be involved in creating a flexible touch screen, but it could be a useful invention.
2. No color. Sounds dumb, but a black and white web browser is not going to fly. I imagine this is going to be in the 2nd gen "e-ink" but that may be a while.
3. The battery pack/logic part. The screen itself is great, but if there's a big "handle" attached to it that contains the battery, CPU, memory, etc. that's actually more cumbersome than just having a thick phone. My iPhone fits in my pocket, but this device would be tricky to squeeze in there. The size problem seems insurmountable due to the battery. Perhaps in a few decades we'll have incredibly small, flexible batteries, but that's a much, MUCH harder problem to solve.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
In the short term, I can see that tech would be very useful in industries where brittle gadgets don't last long. It looks really tough and hardy.
In the long run, they will be more flexible. Add to that surface capacitance or similar tech, then you can have more practical phones than the one shown, but that roll up or fit into spaces that curren't devices can't possibly fit into.
But hey, why stop at phones? Such devices could be applied to uses that we haven't thought of yet.
Here's a thought that I had back in 2001:
Imagine a phone that when rolled up can be stored as easilty as a pen. When a call comes through, you can use it as an earpiece. But when you need to check you calendar, you can unroll it, continue talking as it doubles as a speaker phone and a use it as a smart device. At the time, my colleagues thought I was being silly. Not quite so silly now, eh?
Or how abut a phone in your wallet? Rather than carrying around both a phone and a wallet, you could perhaps slot a phone into the jacket with the clear pastic. It would be a tiny screen, but it may be all you need. I might look kinda dorky though. :)
Call me when it does 3D video calling, Bluetooth, can drive my car, and I can get it by swiping my credit card in a streetside machine!
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
As someone who does research in this area of technology, let me be the first to tell you that this is balls to the wall fucking awesome!! However, one issue they do not address is fatigue. As these displays are subjected to bending throughout their use, the nanoelectronics on the surface of the screen substrate are subjected to low strain cyclical stresses which fatigue the electrical components Eventually, fatigue failure occurs and the screen will die. This is a major issue in flexible electronics and is the only reason why there are not flexible displays in your pocket right now.
And I need to replace my coffee-soaked keyboard!
Interesting tech demo though.
That's not a phone. It's an appliance. Like many so called phones these days, it's too damn huge and not really good on batteries. (Wouldn't a battery defeat its selling point)
Now get the hell off my lawn
The game.
He's suing you for plagiarising Finnegans Wake. Though the original is much easier to read and makes more sense.
It is a flexible screen, not a phone.
The screen is sticking out from a rather huge plastic housing, that includes the actual phone and battery.
This may be a demo app for using flexing as an input method (which looks completly useless in the video), but calling it a flexible phone that "conforms to the shape of its user's pocket" is really stupid.
Just sandwitch this thing between two sheets of plexyglass, add a little bulge for the batteries and you will get an sturdy, slightly flexible, thin, light and completely convenient pad that I can actually *throw* in a bag without fear of breaking an expensive toy.
"Within five years" seems a bit fast for "everything". My first thought, however, is that the keys that are also in my pocket would quickly make interesting holes in the device. Interesting in the sense that they'll clearly show where the vital points are :-D
What a depressingly stupid machine.
"it feels like a thick piece of paper"
Except for the Cellphone RF section and the Battery, those are still thick and not flexible so that you can have more than 30 minutes talk time and a range larger than 200 meters...
Advances in battery tech and RF tech have not increased to the point where the claims of this "phone" can be a reality as a real product.
Once the get a Li-Polymer battery that will not 1, Explode and 2, survive repeat flexing plus that pesky power capacity issue dealt with along with elimination of the need for any heat dissipation for the RF section along with significantly improved receiver sensitivity and transmitter efficiency... It's just a demo of vapor ware.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
fuck tablets. i want something i can fold up or roll up and stick in a pocket
essentially, a smaller form of the traditional morning newspaper, except i only need one plasticy page and one copy, forever. something with the consistency of those durable hiking maps
phone, text, video, camera, audio: yeah, it's all in there too. batteries? pfffft, we don't need no stinkin' batteries: it runs off you. the thing will be low power enough that it will tap something about our biology unobtrusively to derive some power. walking maybe?
basically, a piece of eInked paper that Gutenberg himself wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary about, until the images started moving on their own or the paper made a sound
so we have our star trek tricorders already: smartphones. fuck that
we have our R2D2 3D projections: 3D tv. fuck that
i want a mangy piece of plasticy paper. and i want to carry it in my pocket, and i want to wallpaper my rooms with it
that's nirvana
star wars and star trek got it wrong
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
A phone that get's dog-eared after a week of use.
check out The top status bar. doesn't say in TFA.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
What happens to it if you accidentally put a crease in it? Like, you have it rolled up or folded or something, and something heavy lands on it?
Technoli
You really had to add that last part, did you???...
I've met some of the researchers in this lab, and I've attended talks on their work. They definitely don't mean this prototype to be represented as a practical paperphone device to be sold anytime soon. The prototype is being used simply to investigate bending gestures as a means to UI navigation, complementary to touch and buttons. From what I recall their results have been promising for certain types of behaviour, and it certainly is great to have this level of basic investigation being done long before these types of devices hit the market.
If you get bored with the apps on your paper phone, you can practice origami or play paper football.
I'm waiting for the day that all mobile computers are cellphone size and then the screen rolls out - via the things seen in the movie Red Planet.
http://www.flashfilmworks.com/MovieGuide/RedPlanet/red06.jpg
Did no one else see this idea in Ultraviolet? Am I the only one who watched that movie? They have disposable cell phones you can get out of a vending machine, This is the ultimate in anonymous calling!.