Most consumers prefer a full-color high-definition smartphone, but could a foldable e-ink smartphone with a context-sensitive display make it big in the mainstream market?
Researchers at the Human Media Labs (HML) at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada developed PaperFold, a new kind of foldable smartphone that uses three detachable e-ink displays called "tiles" about the size of a large smartphone that can be snapped together to serve a range of configurations, such as a mini-notebook with touchscreen keyboard or a big, foldable map.
"In PaperFold, each display tile can act independently or as part of a single system," explains Dr. Roel Vertegaal, HML director and professor at the university's School of Computing. Dr. Vertegaal heads the team of students responsible for developing PaperFold and several other paper-inspired smartphone projects.
"It allows multiple device form factors, providing support for mobile tasks that require large screen real estate or keyboards on demand while retaining an ultra-compact, ultra-thin and lightweight form factors," he adds.
PaperFold is a fully functional handheld smartphone that can send messages, make calls and connect to the Internet. The e-ink display also means it does not use as much energy as its power-zapping high-definition counterparts. However, it is smarter than most regular smartphones because it can recognize its own shape and shift to various functions to adapt to its new form factor.
For example, folding it into the shape of a notebook displays a QWERTY keyboard and a screen for typing messages or conducting web searches. Users can also flatten all three tiles to transform the smartphone into a map that expands through all the screens. If they angle the two side screens to the back, the map will shift into Google Earth's 3D view. Folding that map into the shape of 3D building will also allow PaperFold to find a Google SketchUp of that building, which can be used as a model for 3D printing.
"Books use folding as both a navigational and space saving technique, and paper maps have malleable display sizes. The PaperFold smartphone adopts folding techniques that makes paper so versatile, and employs them to change views or functionality of a smartphone, as well as alter its screen real estate in a flexible manner," says Vertegaal.
PaperFold is still in experimental mode and Vertegaal's team made no mention of developing the smartphone for commercial production. The prototype, however, will be presented at the ACM CHI Human Factors in Computing Systems conference on Monday, May 4.
In 2013, HML came up with MorePhone, another paper-inspired smartphone that uses a thin-film flexible display that allows the paper-thin phone to curl up to notify the owner of an incoming call, message or email when it is in silent mode.
The video below demonstrates PaperFold in action.
