The new device, called the MagicScroll, has been developed by scientists working at Queen’s University’s Human Media Laboratory in Canada. The MagicScroll was inspired by ancient papyrus scrolls, in that it take the form of a rolled-up, cylindrical form factor. This is in the finished form of a flexible 7.5 inch touchscreen housed in the casing.
The device was produced via 3D printing. This provides the structure to the device for flipping through on-screen contacts quickly by turning a physical rotary wheel located at both edges of the device. As the user narrows in on an interesting item of content which requires deeper examination , the display can be unrolled and function as a tablet display.
According to one of the developers, Dr. Roel Vertegaa: “The MagicScroll’s scroll wheel allows for infinite scroll action for quick browsing through long lists. Unfolding the scroll is a tangible experience that gives a full screen view of the selected item. Picture browsing through your Instagram timeline, messages or LinkedIn contacts this way!”
In terms of further functionality, TechCrunch notes: “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 video below provides more details:
The device has been described in the journal Proceedings of MobileHCI’18, with the research paper titled “MagicScroll: A Rollable Display Device with Flexible Screen Real Estate and Gestural Input.”
The Human Media Lab Canada’s leading Human-Computer Interaction center. Previous inventions include the attention-aware smartphone; PaperPhone, the world’s first flexible phone; PaperTab, the world’s first paper computer and TeleHuman2, the world’s first truly holographic teleconferencing system.
