Scientists Make a Touch Tablet That Rolls and Scrolls

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Research scientists at Queen's University's Human Media Lab have built a prototype touchscreen device that's neither smartphone nor tablet but kind of both -- and more besides. The device, which they've christened the MagicScroll, is inspired by ancient (papyrus/paper/parchment) scrolls so it takes a rolled-up, cylindrical form factor -- enabled by a flexible 7.5inch touchscreen housed in the casing. This novel form factor, which they made using 3D printing, means the device can be used like an erstwhile Rolodex (remember those?!) for flipping through on-screen contacts quickly by turning a physical rotary wheel built into the edge of the device. (They've actually added one on each end.) Then, when more information or a deeper dive is required, the user is able to pop the screen out of the casing to expand the visible display real estate. The flexible screen on the prototype has a resolution of 2K. So more mid-tier mobile phone of yore than crisp iPhone Retina display at this nascent stage. The scientists also reckon the scroll form factor offers a pleasing ergonomically option for making actual phone calls too, given that a rolled up scroll can sit snugly against the face. The team posted a video showing the prototype in action. They will be presenting the project at the MobileHCI conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Barcelona next month.

This is stupid.

[Highdude702]

According to TFS This will not be a usable device for most. GLHF.

Re:

[Highdude702]

Have you watched the news? And god forbid Youtube. Nobody has to help the liberals look crazy.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[tsa]

I watched the video too. Not sure if it's gay, but you must have a purse or very big pockets to carry that thing around in. Furthermore it's clumsier than a normal iPad and the screen moves when you touch it. Sorry guys, but it's back to the drawing board for you.

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[JaredOfEuropa]

But that huge cylinder can house one hell of a battery, with maybe a month of standby time. Which of course will make it very heavy in addition to being unwieldy.

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[Highdude702]

Yea, I didn't make it past TFS because... Well, I have already said everything that was important in the first post.. lol

Re: Doesn't fit in women's pockets!

[Anonymous Coward]

If it vibrates I think it's supposed to fit somewhere else.

Admit it

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

I first read that as Scientists Make a Touch Toilet That Rolls and Scrolls

Which would be sooooo much cooler.

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[Aighearach]

And even, somehow, more useful.

If you're going to make a thin screen in a frame

[bobstreo]

Please feel free to make it 80-100 inches, with the "roller" on the remote, with ethernet/wifi, and antenna and HDMI inputs,

Um..... K

[markdavis]

>"The flexible screen on the prototype has a resolution of 2K. So more mid-tier mobile phone of yore"

Right, because a 6" screen should be 8K or 24K or 300K or something like that. So important for using that small, flexible, curled, toilet paper roll thing... nothing else in the design matters much when it is only 2K.

Earth: Final Conflict

[Anonymous Coward]

So we're finally one step closer to an Earth: Final Conflict style global?

1990s television show

[davidwr]

There was a 1990s sci-fi show, Earth, Final Conflict I think, where people had a vertical version of this called a "global."

It was basically a roll-up-into-a-tube cell phone/computer.

So Clever!

[Justathot]

"We made this display screen so thin and flexible it can actually be rolled up - and thought that was so cool that we convinced ourselves that people would like storing it rolled up. And since it fails if bent sharply, we figured people would like it stored in a protective scroll case 10x fatter than a normal tablet or phone. When someone with common sense pointed out this was stupid, we desperately looked for some sort of use cases that might convince other people that this really is a good idea.

"And bec

Re: So Clever!

[Sniper98G]

This thing would probably appeal to the same people who bought the Magic Leap one.

"Scientists"

[mark_reh]

What ever happened to "engineers". Scientists don't make stuff like this. They do science.

Is this a joke?

[OneHundredAndTen]

The thing is bulky, awkward, clumsy, inconvenient to use, does not fit in an ordinary pocket, and does practically nothing that cannot already been done far more easily and conveniently with a flat screen.