Origami, Folding Paper over the Web

Origami, paper folding, is a traditional Japanese art of folding paper into representation of 3-D figures. In general, it is quite difficult to learn origami from 2-D images such as diagrams and videos, because it requires inference of 3-D models from 2-D images. We are developing a system for folding origami over the Web, by designing a model of an origami folding process and by implementing a client-server system. Our system consists of three parts: the origami editor, the origami server, and the origami browser. The origami editor enables the user to create and edit origami projects, which are sequences of origami states and folding methods. The origami server receives the input data from the editor and generates a VRML 2.0 data stream, which represents a transition between two origami states. The VRML 2.0 data stream is then displayed by the origami browser, or a VRML 2.0 browser, as a 3-D origami figure in motion.