From the University of Queen’s Media Lab, Canada, Researchers have developed world’s first flexible android smartphone named as ‘ReFlex’ by using bend sensing to imitate casting of pages and playing games without touching the screen.
ReFlex, a colorful high-resolution and a wireless flexible smartphone, allow users to experience physical tactual response when interacting with their apps through bend gestures by co-operating multi-touch with bend input.
Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University said that “It represents a whole new way of physical interaction with flexible smartphones. When this smartphone is bent down on the right, pages jump through the fingers from right to left, just like they are in a book. More extreme bends speed up the page flips.”
He then said, “User will able to feel the sensation of the page moving through their fingertips through a detailed vibration of the phone.”
- The bend sensors are equipped with the display to sense force with which a user bending screen. The sensor will read the amount of bending and is available to apps for using as input.
- It has a high definition 720p LG Display Flexible OLED touchscreen with ‘Android’ version of ‘Kitkat 4.4’ boards that are mounted towards the display side.
- It has a feature like voice coil, allow the phone to imitate forces and friction through the vibration of the display.
- Allows accurate physical imitation of collaborating with virtual data.
“When user will play a game like ‘Angry Bird’ on ReFlex, they bend the screen to stretch the slingshot. As the rubber band expands, the user will experience vibrations that simulate those of a real stretching rubber band. When released, the band snaps, sending a jolt through the phone and sending the bird flying across the screen”, said Vertegaal.
Scientists believe that the ReFlex will be in the market by next five years.