Since we can’t be more than two feet away from our smartphones at any given time, most of us are guilty of shoving them in our back pockets.
The result: cracked screens at worst, and devices that come out looking visibly bendier than when they went in at best. But what if that was the point and they were actually supposed to bend?
Researchers at Queen’s University Human Media Lab have unveiled “Reflex,” the world’s first flexible full colour, high resolution, and wireless smartphone.
And while not breaking or bending our smartphones is certainly a unique selling point, the features of the device go way beyond warding off our clumsiness.
The phone provides a “browsing experience that is highly physical,” meaning we can flick through pages of a magazine or book by bending the phone, which vibrates with every single page and gives it a realistic and tactile quality.
It would also enhance gaming for games like Angry Birds, whereby the slingshot function would feel much more natural as players could bend and release the phone like an elastic band. This is all part of a multi-touch technology that allows the smartphone to recognize more than one point of contact on the surface of the screen.
At this stage the Reflex is just a prototype, but the creator predicts that something like this could be on the market in the next five years.
Until then we suggest you keep your smartphones in plain view and not in your back pocket.
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