Introductions

Hey everyone, here is my first post on my senior project blog. I am sure the next few months are going to be fun. Here is my abstract:

Origami is the ancient Japanese art of folding paper that has many mathematical and geometric properties. Over time designers have developed instruction sets, commonly known as diagrams, in order to record the step-by-step procedures to replicate an origami model. However the applications that exist to make diagrams are not really effective. Most people use illustrating applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Macromedia Freehand, and even Microsoft Word. Clearly none of the programmers of these applications had any intention to use them for origami design.
The purpose of this project is to develop an application that would be used to create diagrams in a natural and easy manner. The program will be divided into two segments: a simulator and a designer GUI. The simulator will be a cloth simulator written in CUDA and C++ that will accurately simulate the origami paper. To get a realistic method of folding a dynamic lattice coupled with rotational springs will be used. This physically based approach to folding will yield more advanced folds. The user will interact with the simulator through an interface that is specifically designed for origami artists to use. The artist will be able to input their folding steps into the simulator and then instantly create publishable diagrams without having to make major changes. It is my intention to make the interface as fluid and intuitive for a person with knowledge about origami diagrams as possible. The ultimate goal is to create an application that will provide a unified method for origami designers to create content.

The next steps are get my PC setup with all my CUDA stuff, start working out the lattice data structure and get out my old VBO code.