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In a 1999 paper, Erik Demaine — now an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, but then an 18-year-old PhD student at the University of Waterloo, in Canada — described an algorithm that could determine how to fold a piece of paper into any conceivable 3-D shape.
It was a milestone paper in the field of computational origami, but the algorithm didn't yield very practical folding patterns. Essentially, it took a very long strip of paper and wound it into the desired shape. The resulting structures tended to have lots of seams where the strip doubled back on itself, so they weren't very sturdy.
At the Symposium on Computational Geometry in July, Demaine and Tomohiro Tachi of the University of Tokyo will announce the completion of a quest that began with that 1999 paper: a universal algorithm for folding origami shapes that guarantees a minimum number of seams.
"In 1999, we proved that you could fold any polyhedron, but the way that we showed how to do it was very inefficient," Demaine says. "It's efficient if your initial piece of paper is super-long and skinny. But if you were going to start with a square piece of paper, then that old method would basically fold the square paper down to a thin strip, wasting almost all the material. The new result promises to be much more efficient. It's a totally different strategy for thinking about how to make a polyhedron."
Demaine and Tachi are also working to implement the algorithm in a new version of Origamizer, the free software for generating origami crease patterns whose first version Tachi released in 2008.
Source: http://news.mit.edu/2017/algorithm-origami-patterns-any-3-D-structure-0622
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sea on Friday June 23 2017, @06:49PM (5 children)
I believe this means that we've just automated away the job of origamists. From TFA, it seems that this will produce far superior origami structures than anything people can come up with easily, and it can do it fast. Combined with a robot to do the folding, it can mass-produce arbitrary origami structures. Maybe someone will combine it with a 3D printer for some additional manufacturing ability.
Wellp, so long, origamists. The machines will do your job from now on. It's still a great hobby, but don't count on being paid for it, when there are 50 million mass-produced optimum-quality origami toys in the stores.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @08:10PM (4 children)
Just exactly as printing pictures has eliminated painters, or mechanical saws eliminated hand saws.
(Score: 3, Touché) by shortscreen on Saturday June 24 2017, @12:47AM (3 children)
How much money are you making painting portraits and sawing boards by hand?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:09AM
How much money are "professional paper folders" making today?
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:38AM (1 child)
I dare say, that one could make more money painting portraits by hand than by printing photos. Same with bespoke furniture, a skilled artist making one of a kind tables and chairs can make a lot of money. Search the internet for people making things out of wood, and offers made by professional painters. You will be surprised what people do and sell, and for how much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @09:47AM
Better practice making bullets instead. Those will have more value than bespoke wooden furniture when the shit goes down.