Programmable Self-Folding Origami

Only a matter of time until technology like this becomes common in everyday items. I want a bed that will make itself when I get out of it in the mornings.

(The device)… consists of a thin sheet of resin–fiberglass composite, just a few centimeters across, segmented into 32 triangular panels separated by flexible silicone joints. Some of the joints have heat-sensitive actuators that bend 180 degrees when warmed by an electric current, folding the sheet over at that joint. Depending on the program used, the sheet will conduct a series of folds to yield the boat or airplane shape in about 15 seconds. The folding-sheet approach is an extension of the field of computational origami, the mathematical study of how flat objects can be folded into complex, three-dimensional structures.

Shifty Science: Programmable Matter Takes Shape with Self-Folding Origami Sheets: Scientific American.

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