ReFlex: Revolutionary flexible smartphone allows users to feel the buzz by bending their apps.

Researchers at Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab have developed the world’s first full-colour, high-resolution and wireless flexible smartphone to combine multitouch with bend input. The phone, which they have named ReFlex, allows users to experience physical tactile feedback when interacting with their apps through bend gestures.

“This represents a completely new way of physical interaction with flexible smartphones” says Roel Vertegaal (School of Computing), director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University.

“When this smartphone is bent down on the right, pages flip through the fingers from right to left, just like they would in a book. More extreme bends speed up the page flips. Users can feel the sensation of the page moving through their fingertips via a detailed vibration of the phone. This allows eyes-free navigation, making it easier for users to keep track of where they are in a document.”

[jaytrock]

They have a long way to go That looks like a plastic bag over the screen.

[muzicrox]

I'd be too tempted to just snap it in half haha

[jetibest]

For people not understanding the implications of such a technology, the more thin, transparent, and bendable a display can become, the better it will integrate with our existing environment. Applications may be very hard to think of right now, but I'm sure that in the future these special non-trivial properties of a display will become much more relevant.
Good job guys!

[mgtsbatman]

was that a hitmarker when he was flipping pages?

[Zoza]

I always knew that smartphones would combine functions as a phone, tablet and a watch.

But it probably comes with a price with battery life and durability, but these things improve over time like the smartphones we have today.

[davidbetancourt]

With the right frame, this would be awesome for kids. Love the work so far.

Also, good job on the demo video guys. Thanks for posting (saw this on iflscience).

[falias]

it looks fancy but i don't see the benefit... i always have to put both hands on the phone, instead of using 1 finger

[jrwith]

let me know when you get that tech into slap bracelet design, wrapping my phone around my wrist would be awesome.

[MisterAlexEsquire]

This strikes me better as a purpose-built reader than as a mobile phone.

Even aside from the fact that cell phones have progressively been getting far too big and unwieldy, the flexibility feature really does seem to peak as a page turner.

The Angry Birds example is terrible, by the way; you gain far better control with the current touch-screen input on that game.

That said, I would seriously like to have a tablet version of this device for use as a comic book reader and possibly a Netflix viewer.

[AlexCoSonic]

The music gave me Mass Effect vibes haha

[MubashirAR]

If it is foldable it would actually be practical, You can fold it and put it in your pocket. This could also be practical for portable gaming devices as you would be having buttons and joystick on the 2 sides anyway

[deepeegre]

"Unbreakable" you say? 0_o Give me 20 seconds and i'll sue you quicker than the Welsh guy with the Apple Watch....

[bradmurphy]

An absolutely amazing device. But it comes to my mind, why did you decide to use the LG G-Flex's 720p display? Why not the G-Flex 2's? That's a 1080p OLED display.

[GEEKsomniac]

Love the ending joke about how it's still usable as a normal phone XD most people overlook that

[krishnansrinivasan]

Can't this be brought through 3d touch in iphone. after all it's a software tweak.Say I force touch the screen while reading a book on a iphone pages flip continously, I release when I find or feel this is the page. But I would love this feature in a tablet. Amazing tech :)

[griha_petrov]

Афигенно! Буду ждать нормальный дизайн)

[めるたん-fi]

Among them, it seems to have people folding and bending Truly.

[farvision]

The sound on this video is muffled and overlaid with music making it hard to understand. If you can't get a simple video right why should I think you can design this thing properly?

[edri]

I just want to know how far you can bend it before you do some damage.

[kef]

The user experience would be horrible as the screen would bend and have too much bounce when you use it making it difficult to type .