DailyDirt: Extreme Origami

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Feb 21st 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Almost any hobby can be taken a bit too seriously, depending on how enthusiastic its practitioners really are. Origami has some extremely cool applications (eg. unfolding solar panels in space, trisecting angles), and it's being studied by mathematicians just for fun. Even if you've only folded paper planes, here are some interesting origami links for you.

MIT is just one institution that studies origami and has a club dedicated to folding stuff. Apparently, the first rule of OrigaMIT is not to not talk about OrigaMIT. [url]
The history of curved origami is covered by the folks at Makezine. MacArthur fellow Erik Demaine goes over some curved origami scuptures dating back to the 1920s. [url]
An 'origami robot' can fold itself into various shapes all by itself. It's too bad GPS devices have made self-folding maps somewhat obsolete.... [url]
To discover more interesting crafts, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: origami, robot

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Pixelation, 21 Feb 2011 @ 5:26pm

Proteins
If you are looking for something that folds, check out protein. Incredibly fast and complex. Folding at Home is all about that.

http://folding.stanford.edu/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pixelation, 21 Feb 2011 @ 5:53pm

I wonder when the guys who made the 'origami robot' will be sued for copyright infringement.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Oz, 21 Feb 2011 @ 6:02pm

Origami
Slow news day much?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 21 Feb 2011 @ 11:39pm

Tool To Help Construct Origami Designs
I don�t think TreeMaker quite generates the complete set of folds for you, but it helps you to work it out.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 21 Feb 2011 @ 11:41pm

For Those Wondering About the Practical Use Of All This...
... consider the Miura fold, which was developed out of the mathematical study of Origami. By a Japanese researcher, of course...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2011 @ 7:56am

Wait... has origami really solved the 'trisect an angle' problem? That was proven impossible with a compass and straightedge. Does the addition of 'folding' give the ability to perform a trisection?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 22 Feb 2011 @ 2:22pm

Re: Trisecting An Angle
Well, you see, folding paper is nothing like working with a compass and straightedge. So yes, the things you can do with one are not like the things you can do with the other.
[ link to this | view in thread ]