Flexible e-paper phone unveiled

Researchers have demonstrated a flexible smartphone which can easily be twisted as an ordinary piece of paper can into any shape.

Made from electronic paper, the phone can be bent, written on or used as a touch screen.

The PaperPhone is a joint venture between the Canadian researchers from Queen's University and the Americans from the Arizona State University and experts at the E-Ink Corporation, reported The Daily Telegraph.

“This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years,” said Roel Vertegaal, director of the human media lab at Queen's, adding that, “This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper,” the researcher added.

Using the same e-Ink technology found in the Amazon Kindle e-reader, the e-paper sheet is just millimeters thick.

The researchers developing the paper phone, which can be used to read e-books and play music in addition to making phone calls, say this technology could mean the days of paper and printers are numbered.

“The paperless office is here. Everything can be stored digitally and you can place these computers on top of each other, just like a stack of paper,” said Vertegaal.