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"WhammyPhone" - Smartphone Bends to Create Music

Researchers at the Human Media Lab at Queen's University have designed the 'WhammyPhone' - a flexible smartphone device that lets users bend the display in order to create musical sound effects. The phone has a 1920x1080 full high-definition Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (FOLED) touchscreen display, which shows keys that can be used to play sounds on sound synthesis software running on a computer. A bend sensor allows for the user to bend the phone as a means of manipulating the sound. "The real importance of WhammyPhone is that it provides the same kind of kinesthetic feedback that, say, a string provides when it is bent to alter the pitch," says Dr. Roel Vertegaal, a professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Queen's. "This kind of effect is critical for musicians to control their expression, and provides another level of utility for bend input in smartphones."