The Human Media Lab (HML) at Queen’s University has just come out with a prototype for a bendable touch screen smartphone. They call it ReFlex. This phone not only bends, but reacts to how it is being bent. This phone is an incredible advancement in the field of mobile devices. With the recent outbreak of people complaining about their iPhone 6 bending in their pocket, this phone will solve all of their problems, because not only can it bend, it is supposed to.
How Does it Work?
This phone is fairly similar to the smartphones of today, save for two main components. It even runs Android 4.4. The first main difference is the material. Unlike iPhones, that use a rigid glass screen, this smartphone uses an OLED screen, which we have seen a lot of lately. But this is the first group to combine it with touch screen technology. The other major difference is, as mentioned above, the screen can bend and actually reacts to how it is being bent. This is due to a haptic actuator that measures how and how much the phone is being bent. It then sends the information to the phone to have it respond. These bend sensors allow for a more realistic feeling when doing things like flipping pages on a book or playing games, like Angry Birds.
Where Can You Learn More About ReFlex?
You can learn more about this smartphone from its creators:
Or if you want you can read the paper that they published here.
Comments and Opinions
ReFlex will be, in my opinion, the stepping stone to unbreakable, transparent smartphones. With its ability to use both touch and bend sensors, while integrating the new OLED technology, this will be one of the most advanced smartphones, when it comes to market. As someone who loves technology, this excites me for what is to come.
