加拿大安大略省皇后大学与美国亚利桑那州立大学的研究人员联合开发了一款先进的“薄膜”柔性纸计算机原型。这款名为PaperPhone的设备被其发明人——皇后大学人类媒体实验室负责人Roel Vertegaal称为“柔性iPhone”。
“这台计算机的观感和操作都像一小叠可交互的纸一样。”Vertegaal介绍说,“将它折起来就是一部手机、翻起边角即可翻页、可以直接在上面用笔书写。”PaperPhone将在5月10日于加拿大Vancouver举行的人机交互大会(CHI 2011)上亮相。CHI 2011是人机交互领域重要的国际性会议。
来自皇后大学与亚利桑那州立大学的研究团队领头人还将在会上演示一款名为Snaplet的腕带式薄膜计算机。这款薄膜计算机/手机原型机的硬件由亚利桑那州立大学柔性显示屏中心主管Nicholas Colaneri和该中心的显示屏工程经理Jann Kaminski提供。
PaperPhone配套的交互手势识别系统由亚利桑那州立大学艺术、媒体与工程学院的博士生Byron Lahey、计算信息与决策系统工程学院的副教授Winslow Burleson共同开发完成。
“通过对输入动态进行实时感知与建模,我们得以在这个前所未有的移动平台上开发出全新的交互阵列,”精于人机交互的Burleson表示,“因此PaperPhone屏幕得以通过自然的手势与交互方式操控地图、联系人列表、音乐列表,期间内容的表现就像是在纸质文件上一样。你拿着书会往前或往后翻页,在PaperPhone上也一样。”
Vertegaal说PaperPhone的发明将激发交互式计算领域的一次大跃进,打开通向下一代更轻更柔计算机的道路。PaperPhone有一块对角线长9.5cm的柔性薄膜电子墨水显示屏,它能完成智能手机的一切工作,例如存储书籍、播放音乐或拨打电话。屏幕的柔性让PaperPhone比现有的任何移动设备都更加便携,可以贴合口袋的形状。在轻薄的柔性计算机上存储、查看文档意味着办公室未来不会再依赖纸张或印刷品。
Vertegaal表示:“无纸办公室时代即将到来。所有文件可以能转化成数字格式,储存在电脑里,然后把电脑摞在一起,就像一摞纸一样,或者把它们随便扔在办公桌周围。”
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点击参考原文:PaperPhone prototype opens door to flexible, interactive computing
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PaperPhone prototype opens door to flexible, interactive computing
Julien Happich
An advanced "thin-film" flexible paper computer has been developed through collaborative efforts of researchers at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, and Arizona State University. Called PaperPhone, it's described as a "flexible iPhone" by its inventor, Roel Vertegaal, the director of the Human Media Lab at Queen's University.
"This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper," Vertegaal says. "You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen." The paper computer is to be unveiled May 10 in Vancouver, Canada, at the Association of Computing Machinery's CHI 2011 (Computer- Human Interaction) conference - the premier international meeting in the field of human-computer Interaction.
Leaders of the Queen's University and ASU research groups also plan to demonstrate at the conference a thin-film wristband computer called Snaplet. Hardware for a prototype of the thin-film computer/phone device has been provided by Nicholas Colaneri, director of ASU's Flexible Display Center, and Jann Kaminski, a display engineering manager at the center.
An interactive gesture-recognition system for the PaperPhone has been developed by Byron Lahey, a doctoral student in ASU's School of Arts, Media and Engineering, and Winslow Burleson, an assistant professor in the School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, one of ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
"Using real-time sensing and modeling of dynamic inputs we were able to develop and evaluate an entirely new array of interactions on a first-of-its-kind mobile platform," says Burleson, who specializes in human-computer interaction and leads the Motivational Environments Research Group.
"This allows natural bend gestures and interaction on the Paperphone display to navigate through maps, contact lists, or music play lists, in ways that resemble how such content appears on paper documents," he explains. "You fold or bend the page to move forward in a book. Now, with this device, you can do that on your phone, too."
Vertegaal says the invention will spark a major advance in interactive computing, opening the path to a new generation of computers that are more lightweight and flexible. Using a 9.5 centimeter diagonal thin-film flexible electronic ink display, it does everything a smartphone does, including store books, play music or enable phone calls, Vertegaal says. The flexibility of the display makes it more portable than any current mobile computer, and it could be made to fit the shape of a pocket, he says. The ability to store and interact with documents on larger versions of the light, flexible computers could mean offices will no longer have to rely on paper or printers.