A "printer," produced to fold and shape even the most intricate origami project. Blueprints for various origami figurines could be downloaded via the internet, or mass purchased through compact discs full of them, similar to the way they sell CDs full of clipart. Would have inkjet technology in order to color the origami if desired. The origami printer could also be used to produce the various parts of a mass figurine which could then be assembled manually. Useful for quick interior decoration, or just for the fun of making origami. For those of us who lack the ability to produce such beautiful works of art out of common printer-paper.
Also produces the best paper airplanes on the block.-- Pseudonym #3, Apr 05 2002 (?) Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes http://www.fascinat...amiland/sadako.html [calum, Apr 08 2002] Now that would be some complicated machinery. The dexterity involved is beyond many people's abilities with their hands. Sort of an old-fangled, new-fangled 3D printer.
Oh yeah . . . croissantage +-- bristolz, Apr 05 2002 i've always thought it would be neat to have a machine that could fold a thousand cranes for luck in side of 2 hours.
but like bristolz said, it would be very complex, and expensive.
as for a cd rom for origami, there is at least one already. it's called "origami, the secret life of paper". it was made by "caseday and greene (sp?)" software (they also make "conflict catcher"). i have it (but not infront of me, or i'd check the spelling).
it contains instructions for about 6 or 8 models with diagrams and quicktime movies of the steps in progress. in addition, you can color the sheets of paper on screen, so when you print the sheet (with folding lines), and fold the crane, you can have each wing be a differant color, or patern, from the tail and head and body. it's a nice effect.
it allso has information on origami history, paper making instructions, and a gallery of pictures of models, with information on their creators.
i've been doing origami for years, and i love it.
you get a croisant, part of the idea was baked (origami cdroms), but i always love an origami idea.-- wess, Apr 05 2002 [wess] Thanks for the croissant. :) I know that CD roms with origami on them are baked, but I mean a CD rom that would feed instructions to the printer itself, like a bunch of blueprints compatible with the printer.-- Pseudonym #3, Apr 05 2002 A machine which has the dexterity to fold just one figure (let's say a traditional crane) which is well known at design time is a challenge in itself. I am struggling to imagine a machine that can produce an arbitrary fold in an already-arbitrarily-folded piece of paper. It would kick all kinds of butt if it could exist.
Perhaps a first step in the right direction is a machine that could press all the creases into a single flat sheet of paper, making it easier for a person to fold the figure manually. A two dimensional vector drawing tells the machine where each crease begins and ends, as well as which side of the paper each crease opens toward. Operation would be similar to that of a plotter, except that instead of colored pens it uses a tiny pizza cutter style roller and a compressible rubber mat or platen.
Some folds I have seen in advanced origami books would still baffle the average person off the street, even with the paper pre-creased.-- BigBrother, Apr 05 2002 Average person: "Man, that baffled me right off the street!"-- beauxeault, Apr 05 2002 And the robotic hands would, of course, have to be wearing white gloves. Also comes with a large boot in case of annoying/drunk friends.-- Pseudonym #3, Apr 05 2002 Pppp-Hah! You have just described my 1993 Panasonic KX-P1123 Dot Matrix printer. Want me to ship it to you? It's still here because I'm too lazy to throw it into the river.-- entremanure, Apr 06 2002 Intricately Folded Croissant-- thumbwax, Apr 06 2002 Well, I can now announce this is the first time I've broken through the one-croissant barrier.
Virtual champagne for everyone, on me.-- Pseudonym #3, Apr 06 2002 Oh that stuff goes straight to my head.-- bristolz, Apr 06 2002 and of course, you'd have to drink it out of an origami champane glass! (lol)
i'd like to see robot hands fold a cherub playing a trumpet!
or how about a unicorn?-- wess, Apr 08 2002 <stickler> wess, the 1000 cranes is not for luck. It is something that Japanese people do for the sick, a kind of "get well" charm.</stickler> These days, though it is a symbol of hope for peace.
I like this idea but with I have one reservation. When a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer (now on the mend) he received in the post from a Japan-resident mutual friend 1000 perfectly folded cranes. The time spent folding so many colourful cranes was as eloquent an expression of conern for the wellbeing of another person as I have ever encountered. It would be sad if this machine could be used to mass produce the cranes, robbing them of their significance.-- calum, Apr 08 2002 I believe it would be fairly easy to differentiate between a thousand hand-folded cranes and a thousand produced by a machine; the ones by the machine would all look exactly the same.-- Pseudonym #3, Apr 08 2002 [calum], you're absolutly right. machine folded cranes would be meaningless, i knew that. that's why, even though i thought of a crane folding machine, i would certainly never try to build one, even if i could. i too, have taken part in crane folding for a sick friend.
origami is much more fun by hand, anyway.
in addition, i get a sense of pride, and acomlishment after finnishing something like a jack-in-the-box that realy works.-- wess, Apr 09 2002 Exactly what would be the point of this machine? You do origami because you enjoy it. If you don't, just quit. Why not build a machine that drinks your beer for you, eats your ice cream for you and also watches the TV for you?-- herilane, Apr 09 2002 Okay, the post that used to be here might have been a little too overdone.
I do understand that folding 1000 cranes by hand would be far more of a caring guesture than 'printing' up 1000 of the things would. However, I never suggested using the machine to do such a thing in the first place.
My formal apology to anyone I might have snapped at. (I seem to be doing a lot of this at the halfbakery.)
[Rods] I just might. It might just come in very handy for people without hands.-- Pseudonym #3, Apr 09 2002 Computer designed and fabricated paper airplanes, very nice. Fresh Croissant.-- dag, Apr 09 2002 Pseudonym, when i said "meaningless" i only ment to elaberate on my 1000 crane machine coment from my earlier post.
ok, maybe "meaningless" was to severe, i'm sorry if it was ofensive.
but the truth is, if the cranes are a wish for the recovery of a sick friend, it's a nice jesture that you and other friends took the time to fold 1000 cranes (if you can).
to have an origami machine would be fun, if such thing were posible.
i certanly didn't mean that we shouldn't have any machines.-- wess, Apr 09 2002 pseudonym,
I'm the one that mentioned (realy in jest) a 1000 crane machine, so all that part of the argument was my fault anyhow, sorry again.
anyhow, i still think the origami printer would be a neat thing to have.
and hey, i just realized, i am an "origami printer"! i'm an offset printer, who does origami! (lol)-- wess, Apr 09 2002 Maybe, instead of "printing" cranes and other animal figures, it could "print" a variety of 3d shapes that could be assembled into a useful object, like a CD rack. Then you could, for a limited range of products, finally achieve the long wished-for ability to buy something on-line and have it instantly delivered via the "printer."-- beauxeault, Apr 09 2002 You could use card stock or wafer stock and an epoxy printer cartridge to make some fairly durable composites. [beauxeault], you are no clown. Nice idea.
You would still have to assemble the pieces, unless you use some sort of stereolithography technology for your printer to make 3D objects.-- dag, Apr 09 2002 [dag] actualy, there is a computer device that produces 3d objects out of poly resin. it sort of extrudes the object upwards while a laser hardens one layer of plastic at a time, starting from the top.
it's sort of like the way the cross sections of a cat scan can be made into a 3d rendering of a skull. well, this thing could extrude a model of that skull in plastic.
so if you had a 3d rendering of a cd rack, you could output one of those.-- wess, Apr 10 2002 [wess] That's what stereolithography is. As far as I know they don't make a cheap home unit yet.-- dag, Apr 10 2002 Stereolithography machines can be had for around $15,000 (U.S.), so it's relatively cheap (if you're Donal Trump). This is one of those ideas that wouldn't be so useful in its original form, but might lead to something truly great (like the not so great adhesive that ended up being the basis for Post It Notes). You definitely get a croissant for providing inspiration (which as we all know is 2% of the invention process...)
BTW, check out Roland if you're looking for small 3D scanners and stereolithography machines.-- timservo, Apr 10 2002 random, halfbakery