The Next Step for Smart Phones: Paper Thin

Mobile phone technology follows a pretty straight path - get smaller and get smarter. Over the past year we've seen the newest incarnations of the iPhone and Blackberry, with producers playing to the strengths of their models; Blackberries got more business-focused and iPhones got more fun. But what is the next progression? Can a phone really get any more compact? The answer, apparently, is an enthusiastic yes.

Introducing the PaperPhone: an extremely light weight and, as the name suggests, paper-thin smart phone. Its creators are taking inspiration from its pliable form and running with it. When taking a call you can bend it into a cell phone, turn the pages on your e-book by flipping the corner, and write on it with a pen and have your words translated into text.

The inventor, Dr. Roel Vertegaal, the director of Queen's University Human Media Lab in Ontario, Canada, states "The computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper, meaning that when users are reading they don't feel like they're holding a sheet of glass or metal." This has ramifications for office set-ups, with Dr. Vertegaal predicting "everything can now be stored digitally...you can place these computers on top of each other just like a stack of paper."

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-qygUEE2c

[via DailyMail]