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Surprising Science

PaperTab Combines The Best Of Two Tech Worlds

One of the hits at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, the device is a flexible high-resolution tablet that feels, and in some ways acts, like a piece of paper.

What’s the Latest Development?


In an intriguing combination of technologies, UK-based Plastic Logic has teamed up with Intel and the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University in Canada to create the PaperTab, which combines tablet technology with the behaviors of paper. The lightweight, flexible device feels like a sheet of paper but is actually a high-resolution touchscreen display powered by a processor that Intel describes as “a significant advance in its efforts to explore disruptive user experiences.” It was unveiled at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

What’s the Big Idea?

Plastic Logic CEO Indro Mukerjee says the PaperTab “allow[s] a natural human interaction with electronic paper, being lighter, thinner and more robust compared with today’s standard glass-based displays.” On a single PaperTab, a user can navigate through documents by bending one side of the display as if to turn the page. Unlike traditional tablets, which contain multiple apps, each PaperTab represents a single app, and multiple PaperTabs on the same desk communicate in different ways depending on their proximity to each other, “providing a seamless experience across all apps as if they were physical computer windows.”

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Read it at InformationWeek


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