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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."
In the very near term, maybe. To me, what makes this much more interesting is the ability to have a display that's just about any size you want. Fold it up and stick it in your pocket; when you just want to make a phone call, you leave it as-is, but if you want something larger, you just unfold it. I agree that the prototype's not much, but I can easily envision something the size of a large desktop display that you can fold up to phone size, 5-10 years down the road.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
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. :)
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.
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.
Right, I really want paper creases down the middle of my screen... Actually this seems more like thin flexible plastic than paper. I think maybe the e-Ink display confused the journalists. It doesn't look like it would fold well though, just flex a great deal.
For larger displays what we really need are wireless display standards. Like Bluetooth but for video. When I am watching TV and the phone rings in my pocket the caller ID is displayed in the corner of the TV screen. If I place the phone on my multi-touch table that becomes the screen and keyboard. If I want to present something my phone display appears on a digital whiteboard.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
"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.