Researchers from the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University have developed a holographic, flexible smartphone called HoloFlex. According to the Human Media Lab's blog, the device is capable of rendering 3D images with motion parallax and stereoscopy without the need for head tracking sensors or glasses. The phone is also equipped with a bend sensor that allows users to interact with the device by bending the display.
The Holoflex uses a Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (FOLED) panel with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. However, the images are rendered into 12-pixel wide circular blocks, which are then projected through a 3D printed microlens array consisting of over 16,000 fisheye lens. This results in a resolution of only 160 x 104 pixels, but allows the user to view a 3D object from multiple angles by rotating the phone.
The HoloFlex is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC with Adreno 430 graphics and 2GB of RAM. In addition, the phone runs Android Lollipop v5.1. One of the researchers, Dr. Roel Vertegaal, believes that this technology might be used to perform holographics video conferences. “By employing a depth camera, users can also perform holographic video conferences with one another. When bending the display users literally pop out of the screen and can even look around each other, with their faces rendered correctly from any angle to any onlooker,” he said.
Back in February, Vertegaal and his team developed a wireless flexible smartphone called ReFlex that combined multi-touch input with bend input. The phone allowed users to experience physical tactile feedback via bend gestures. The device used bend sensors located behind the display that apps can use for input, along with a voice coil that simulates forces and friction through vibrations.