The laptop or tablet device of the future might just be one that rolls up and can be shoved into your pocket. A new paper-thin device with a flexible plastic screen that users can bend and touch to change the display has just been unveiled.

“PaperTab” is the result of a combined project from Intel, Plastic Logic and a Canadian college.

Says Roel Vertegaal, Director of Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab:

Using several PaperTabs makes it much easier to work with multiple documents. Within five to 10 years, most computers, from ultra-notebooks to tablets, will look and feel just like these sheets of printed colour paper.

Several PaperTabs, you ask? Yes, that’s how they’ve designed the product: plastic transistor technology, combined with a second generation Intel core i5 processor, and 10,7-inch, high resolution E-ink touchscreen displays allow multiple PaperTabs to be used at once. How? Each separate PaperTab acts as a window for separate applications, while still interacting with each other.

Being shatterproof is another bonus.

Says Gizmag:

Using an electromagnetic tracker, each PaperTab can keep track of its location relative to other PaparTabs and the user so that the display changes dynamically based on its position. For example, PaperTabs placed out of reach of the user revert to a thumbnail view of a document and switch back to a full screen page view when picked up. Additionally, documents can be opened on one display by touching a document icon on another, while photos on one device can be attached to an email composed on another by touching the two devices together.

A larger display area can be created by simply placing two or more PaperTabs next to each other with objects able to be dragged across multiple displays. While the device features a touchscreen, users can also navigate documents by bending the display in various ways.

PaperTab will be on show at The International Consumer Electronics Show taking place this week in Las Vegas.

[Source: Gizmag]