CES 2013: Plastic Logic PaperTab flexible tablet could be the future of paper
Plastic Logic may have left their own-branded eReader devices behind, but they’re still innovating in the electronic paper field. For CES 2013, they’ve teamed up with Intel and Queen’s University to develop the PaperTab, a 10.7 inch flexible tablet concept that could well represent the future of regular wood-mush paper.
A bendy, high-resolution display that’s paper-thin, the PaperTab is powered by a Core i5 processor, and uses innovative gesture controls to navigate. For example, bending the display would turn a page in a book, a completed email could be sent by bending forward a corner of the sheet, while touching two PaperTabs together would let you share information between each device.
Intriguingly, the plan is to run a single app on each PaperTab, rather than swiping between multitasking apps as with a traditional tablet experience. Positional awareness of the PaperTab allows each sheet to know what’s being shown on the other and display relevant information. The PaperTab would also know when it’s within reaching distance of its user, displaying an overview of contained documents for instance when out of reach.
“Plastic Logic’s flexible plastic displays are completely transformational in terms of product interaction,” says Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Plastic Logic.
“They allow a natural human interaction with electronic paper, being lighter, thinner and more robust compared with today’s standard glass-based displays. This is just one example of the innovative revolutionary design approaches enabled by flexible displays.”
As just a prototype at this stage, there’s no release plan or pricing information available yet. But it’s certainly an intriguing look at what the eReaders or even regular paper of the (probably distant) future could look like.
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