In the Future, You'll Play 'Angry Birds' on This Flexible Smartphone
Adds a whole new meaning to ‘Bendgate.’
While bendable gadgets have already been a fixture on the CES circuit for some years now, this latest flexible smartphone prototype from Queens University shows how far the technology has come. Called the ReFlex, the smartphone adds haptic feedback and bend sensors to allow the user to interact with apps through this new vector, all the while removing connecting wires as previous prototypes were tied down with. Examples shown in the video include flipping through the pages of an e-book, adjusting the speed by the extent of the bending; as well as playing a game of Angry Birds where bending the phone pulls back the slingshot.
Featuring an LG OLED display and powered by Android 4.4, the ReFlex can also be used much like any other smartphone in its flat, rigid state. Due to be exhibited at a Dutch human-computer interaction conference today, the development team predict that the technology can be brought to market in the next five years. Until then, we’ll just have to make do with the inelegant solution of tapping and poking at our smartphone screens.
