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Computational Origami and David Huffman
geeber writes "Here is an article about David Huffman's work in the mathematics of computational origami at the New York Times (soul sucking registration required). According to the article, computational origami, "also known as technical folding, or origami sekkei, draws on fields that include computational geometry, number theory, coding theory and linear algebra." David Huffman is also the inventor of Huffman coding used in MP3s and was mentioned prieviously here."
"Let's sue HIM too!!!" -RIAA
Huffman coding was one of the first codings used to compress data LONG LONG time ago, in a galaxy far far away where MP3's were billions of years yet to come in the future.
It is real cool to see such pioneering people still involved in new things.
Yamaha Paper Craft
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
So.. who knows how to actually do all of that?
Hmmm.
Click through from Google.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
as /. performs computational origami on the server and fold it into a crumpled half-finished paper swan on the floor
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Since he died in '99 he has become less involved.
Also, origami is not actually a new thing.
What Huffman was interested in was curved folds and stress points. Maybe it should be called Extreme Origami.
Here is Google's link
Hmmm.
...is in Mark Nelson's "The Data Compression Book".
What's especially nice is that the book walks you thru the various steps - minimum redundancy coding, adaptive huffman coding, arithmetic coding... so the improvements are introduced gradually and logically. Good stuff.
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It's great to see someone so skillfully merge his knowledge of computer science and his appreciation for good aesthetics into such beautiful shapes. It seems many people who have an interest in programming and design try to merge these skills together, but more often than not the results are nothing but mindless attempts at combining the two just for the sake of it. It is good to see someone who has an real understanding of both and who can create meaningful examples of why each part is such a big part of the other.
Can we drop the lame "(soul sucking registration required)" comments everytime a NY Times or similiar news posting is displayed? Those who read here are quite knowledgeable in getting around the registration process; if not, someone's going to post a comment with a Google link within minutes of posting anyways.
A simple "reg. req." is sufficient.
It seems to me that this is just taking another piece of art and removing the uniqueness of it. By taking Origami to a technical level is similar to looking at computer generated images instead of works of art. Granted, the ideas that are being calculated are still unique, but the look and feel may not be.
Aj
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artlu.net
There are also some nice pictures of Huffman's origami here. The pictures also show Huffman himself doing the folding.
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Better yet, does anybody know how he folded those things? They're amazing! It reminds me of the works of Buckminster Fuller, Kenneth Snelson, and Chuck Hoberman in that they have an underlying mathematical model that also exhibits "elegance and simplicity". I love this kind of art.
If this interests you, be sure to check out Erik Demaine's work at MIT, Issei Yoshino's Super Complex Origami, HOYJO Takashi, Biruta Kresling's Keikki Bamboo folds, Robert Lang's Design Secrets of Origami, Robert Hull's Origami^3 compilation. Not all computational origami looks mathematical but the methods for getting to and end are clearly designed from step one. Quite frankly I understand very little of the math, but I can appreciate the elegance of an efficient fold.
I've always liked the idea of using origami for spacecraft. I can also envision universal constructor machines that convert asteroid materials into flat sheet and robotic systems that then fold long pieces of flat sheet stock into any shape that's needed (such as full size versions of these Star Wars spacecraft).
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Directly from the article : Most computational origamists are driven by sheer curiosity and the aesthetic pleasure of these structures, but their work is also finding application in fields like astronomy and protein folding, and even automobile safety.
:-P
I'm tempted to flame you like hell but well, it's just that I've read TFA. My bad, sorry!
I'd rather be sailing...
What I find impressive is that people like Huffman are possibly defining new application fields for mathematics, maybe leading to new theories, all from (originally) a hobby.
This reminds me of former mathematicians such as Euler and his Konigsberg bridges...
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[...] Huffman coding used in MP3s [...]
Why does everything have to be compared to MP3s? Why couldn't it have been 'Huffman coding used in ZIP files' or '[...] used by GZip' or '[...] used by the huffyuv lossless video codec' or any of about 5 million other applications that use huffman coding. Most of which are a lot more specific than MP3 which also uses a cocktail of other techniques to achieve compression and is, above all else, lossy, which huffman coding isn't.
To be transmitted across the Internet, this message was broken down into bits, like MP3s are.
As usual, several areas of math that are widely considered "pure" rather than "applied" turn out to have real world implications. The relationship of something as apparently trivial as folding paper to compressing and encoding data is a remarkable example of isomorphism in itself, beyond that:
If you're funding education or pure research, you never know when something will unexpectedly prove useful, or even valuable.
If you're the NSA, the RIAA, or any regulator you never know when or where the djinni will get out of the bottle.
(Insert pithy saying about chinese ideograms for danger and opportunity being isomorphic)
Who is John Cabal?
Did he fold your mattress into a swan?
Vry nfrmtv chptr n lssy cmprsn?
Thr shld b n 'n' n th wrd 'on'
John_Chalisque
I took a class taught by Professor Huffman at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He was an excellent teacher and really enjoyed teaching. The class, Introduction to Cybernetics, included Huffman coding and some basic neural network stuff, but never once did he call it Huffman Coding. One thing I remember from his class was we had to use a lot of logarithms and the results would have to be something like 5*log2(7) + log3(5). This ruled out using a calculator or a computer for the most part.
He also frequently gave credit to Claude Shannon on information coding.
Sadly (or fortunately) I avoided his other class, due to the fact that the failure rate was 60% for people taking the class for the second time. I think the first time takers failed at 90%.
-Aaron
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
Do you know how many hours do classical musicians practice per day their technique? Obviously not.
Do you know how many hours do dancers practice their physical technoique? Certainly not.
Do you know that many of the most insightful writers will be voraceous readers and will constantly refer to grammar books, dictionaries and other technical resources? It would seem you don't.
Inspiration is frankly overrated, such point of view regarding "inspiration by the muses" so highly is a hangover of the XIX century romantic mentalitly, which of course forgot how the artists of that time worked uncountable hours to polish their technique.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
There was also an article in Computer World Magazine, about Robert Lang's software that's being used to fold stuff from airbags to solar panels in spacecraft.