If a prototype tablet PC that debuted at this month's Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas ever gets produced in volume and
becomes the next big thing in portable consumer computing, we'll
be back to laying out sheets of paper on a desk. Except a lot of
data will be stored in each sheet, and the sheets will be
communicating with one another. The PaperTab flexible tablet
splits a tablet's windows into separate sheets of electronic
paper. Developed at the Human Media Lab of Canada's Queen's
University in collaboration with Plastic Logic and Intel Labs,
the conceptual device should probably be called PaperWindow,
since each sheet serves as an app window. The device runs on the
Intel Core i5 processor and is based on flexible plastic
transistor technology and 10.7-inch display touchscreen
technology developed by Plastic Logic, a company known for its
research in plastic transistors and flexible displays. (We've
discussed this company before.) The PaperTab flexible tablet PC
splits a tablet's windows into separa