By Keegan McEwen, Grade 7, W. H. Morden Elementary Public School
Phone technology has changed a lot over the years. From phones the size of bread to phones the size of palms of hands. Now we have even newer technology to announce. The new Paperphone (so hi-tech that it hasn’t even been put into stores yet)! To get a better understanding of Paperphones we had a firsthand interview with Dr. Audrey Girouard, Adjunct professor in School of Computing at Queen’s university. She also has a Phd. So far, 5 people have been working on the Paperphone for 7 or 8 years. The 5 people are Dr. Girouard, two professor from Queen’s and two people other people with Phds, one from California and one from Queen’s.
There are several pros to having a Paperphone. One is that it uses electronic ink which is small drops of the special ink that moves when you send a current through it. The current moves the ink up or down. When it is up, you can see the display and when it goes down, you can’t see it as well. This is a good thing because since it isn’t lights lighting up, there isn’t a strain on your eyes. Another one is that since the Paperphone is light, when you drop it, it doesn’t break. A third is, if you sit on it, it will just bend but not break.
Unfortunately, the Paperphone, as with all thing, is not perfect. There are a couplee of flaws. In a dark room, you will not be able to see what is on the screen because the Paperphone reflects light. This can also be seen in a good way, it means that you have to be somewhere bright, like outside. It is also very slow to refesh so everytime anything moves even slightly, the page will have to refesh which takes almost a second. Right now, there isn’t a speaker so you will not be able to tell if you are getting a phone call. Finally, a very common con among electronics, water. Water is still bad for the Paperphone and if any gets into the circuitry, it will break the Paperphone.
There are several small things about the Paperphone that should be known. There will be an antenna to connect to the internet. There will be colurs and ways you will be able to customize them. A funny thing about the Paperphones is, the testers were worried about breaking the Paperphone because they were told to bend the phone and they didn’t want to risk breaking it. The Paperphone feels like plastic and in order to charge it, you will have to plug it into a computer with a special cable. Queen’s university is the first university to work on bend technology. You can look in stores for the Paperphone in about 5 to 10 years. You decide, great tool of the future or waste of time.
Queen's Enrichment Studies Unit 