The prototype named, "ReFlex"
allows users to turn the page of a
book or play of the popular games
like Angry Birds just by bending
the top and bottom ends of the
phone.
This is one of the first real
implications of bendable screens in
smartphone development and has
been developed with a 720p LG
Flexible OLED touch screen.
Android's KitKat operating
system has a haptic actuator in
order to detect the bending of
the phone and give feedback in
relation to the angle and current
application process.
A phone that bends like this one
does is a significant tchnological
advancement; not because it looks
cool, but because it's actually
practical.
In addition to playing games and
reading, the developers believe
that there are greater uses for the
smartphone.
Still in development though,
they claim that it won't be ready
for commercial use for a "couple
of years," so anyone hoping for
a new bendy smartphone will be
disappointed - for now anyway.
Other companies have also tried
making bendable and foldable
phones in the past but with little to
no avail.
The technology is only just
starting to really develop; LG's G
Flex 2 is just one of a number of
curved smartphones that have
been released by the company.
Samsung has also released
several concepts for foldable
phones and what they have called
flexible "Morphees" which are
another idea for foldable phones,
but inflexible batteries restrict
phone designs to the rigid hard
cases that we're used to but with
the repetitve aesthetics that new
phone models are seeing (think
iPhones), trendy phone cases
have become increasingly popular,
leaving this particular gap in the
market wide open for products like
"Relflex".
GUESTLIST
2016 / ISSUE 86
21
TECHNOLOGY
A Smartphone prototype that would revolutionise physical interaction has been developed by academics at Queen's
University, Canada.
REFLEX: THE WORLD'S
FIRST PRACTICAL
BENDABLE PHONE
