Jun-ichiro Toriwaki and Shin-ya Miyazaki
Department of Information Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-01, Japan
(Received February 2, 1994; Accepted February 25, 1994)
Keywords: ORIGAMI (Paper Folding), Virtual Space Manipulation, Interactive Simulation, Natural User Interface, Virtual Reality
Abstract. This article describes an "ORIGAMI (paper folding)" simulator which realizes interactive folding operations of a virtual paper with color, texture, and shaded surfaces generated by using computer graphics. The paper in a 3D virtual world is transformed into a 3D form made by polygonal faces in real-time by four kinds of folding operations: "Bending", "Folding up", "Tucking in" and "Curving". All folding operations are performed only by picking and moving a vertex of the paper on a graphic screen with a mouse device and by changing the viewing position freely. On the paper face, Japanese traditional colorful texture such as YUZEN is printed and the surface is shaded by the virtual light. Using this simulator, an operator can enjoy design or production of various 3D forms, sometimes including physically unrealizable ones, according to his versatile ideas and free images in his brain.