Let me state right up front that this thing is useless, a bad idea in search of a problem. I don’t care, because it’s also super cool and a herald of some crazy cool stuff yet to call. That out of the way, here’s the Magicscroll (via TechCrunch), a research product from scientists at Canada’s Queen’s University Human Media Lab. It’s part smart-ish phone, part tablet, and part wonky, because it rolls into a cylinder, thanks to a 7.5” 2K resolution flexible display. Watch the video, and you can see how they use the ends to navigate and unroll the screen to use it as a tablet. Ish. Here’s why I’m excited about it: it’s that rolled up display. While “displays” are eventually headed towards holographic projectors (I’m telling you now), an intermediary step is going to be displays that roll up into tight little cylinders we can take with us. Again, I’m telling yo now. The Magicscroll is an early step towards much more useful iterations, and you have to start somewhere. Also, I love to see anyone trying to think about different ways to do things, even if those ways seem absurd. You know, like this one. So, check it out!