Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

via YouTube screengrab
Flexiphone

Revealed: World's first flexible smartphone made from electronic 'paper'

Built with the same e-ink technology used on an Amazon Kindle this currently $7,000 prototype could be the phone of the future.

A PROTOTYPE OF a flexible smart phone made out of electronic paper has been created by researchers in Canada.

The so-called PaperPhone can do all the things that standard smartphones can do but without the ‘bulkiness’.

In fact you probably won’t get anything thinner than this phone, created by a group of researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.

It is only a $7,000 dollar prototype at the moment but creator Roel Vertegaal believes the device will become commonplace in the future, telling PCMag:

There have been only three display revolutions. The first was CRT, the second was LCD, and the third is flexible displays.

When I first got wind of them, I realised they were going to change everything.

The millimetres thick prototype is built from the same e-ink technology found on Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader.

This technology is bonded to flex sensors and a touchscreen that interprets drawings and text that is written on it, BBC reports.

The prototype device will go on display for all to marvel at on 10 May at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Vancouver.

Check out how it all works in this video courtesy of Human Media Lab: