Everyone dreams of an electronic display they can roll up and shove in their pocket — but now it’s closer than ever. These flexible e-paper tablets are the stuff of dreams.
Developed by Queen’s University, Plastic Logic and Intel Labs, the displays look like sheets of paper, but they’re actually 10.7-inch plastic displays that are flexible and touch sensitive. Here, a bunch of them are strung together and powered by Intel guts.
Each display houses a different app, and the screens can interact with each other: tap one page on another to open a document or email, say, and then flick or twist to provide commands. The displays also know where others are, so they can be teamed up to produce a larger screen when placed next to each other.
It’s an amazingly realised concept, which feels a little bit like how people 20 years ago probably imagined modern offices should look. OK, maybe it’s not perfectly polished — refreshing looks dog slow and it feels awkward with all those ribbon cables over the desk — but give it a break. If my desk looks like a neater version of this in a few years time, I will be a happy man. [YouTube]