Augmented Reverse-Origami: from 3D Model to Square PaperSimona Maria Banu∗

Transilvania University, Brasov, RomaniaAutomatics, Electronics and Computers Department

MIV Imaging Venture Laboratory

Figure 1: Left: Two examples of origami models (Owl and Totoro character). They were animated using the Augmented Reverse-OrigamiSystem. Right: One intermediate step from the unfolding process (for each origami model).

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an interactive system that animates the processof unfolding origami models back to their original square papers.On developing the animation Computer Vision and Augmented Re-ality techniques are used. In order to augment the virtual ani-mated origami model onto the real scene we use a picture of thereal origami model instead of a conventional marker. Since Head-Mounted Displays can be cumbersome, the visualization is done ona computer screen.

Index Terms: H.5 [Information Interface and Presentation]:Multimedia Information Systems—Animations; H.5 [InformationInterface and Presentation]: Multimedia Information Systems—Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities; I.4 [Image Processingand Computer Vision]: Scene Analysis—Tracking;

1 INTRODUCTION

Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. ”Ori” inorigami means folding and ”gami” means paper in Japanese. Com-bined word ”origami” means a folded paper, an act of folding anorigami, or an art of folding an origami, depending on the context.

The paradigm of this art is to create various shaped objects usinggeometrical folds and crease patterns from a single piece of paper.Even though it is considered a Japanese form of art, origami is gen-erally agreed to have come to Japan from China. At first, it wasnot representational or recreational, but was used in cultural cere-monies, such as Shinto weddings [2].

Origami attracts not only lovers of paper art, but mathematiciansand computer scientists due to its power of constructing geometricalobjects from paper.

Usually, when learning origami, instructional videos and dia-grams are used as guidance. This applies to fairly simple andmedium level models, but for the really complex ones the diagramsand/or instructional videos are not available to the large public.Sometimes is hard to believe that complex models as the ones inFigure 2 were made from one single piece of paper. For this prob-lem we have created an interactive system that uses recent Com-

∗e-mail:simonam.banu@gmail.com

puter Vision and Augmented Reality (AR) techniques for process-ing the unfolding of complex models back to their square bases. Wedo not use conventional black square markers, but pictures of realorigami models, thus making the illusion more convincing.

Figure 2: Shipho Mabona’s Cicada and Onitsuka Tiger creations(http://www.mabonaorigami.com/uploads/pics)

In the following we present our work, give reactions from peo-ple, and describe the technical part behind Augmented Reverse-Origami system.

2 AUGMENTED REVERSE-ORIGAMI

Normal origami paper is very thin and thus prone to tearing whenusing a large number of folds. Complex origami models usuallyimply having many folding creases, thus they have to be gently ma-neuvered after completion. If the user wants to unfold the 3D modelback to its square paper, sometimes the paper is so warned out that itcannot be folded back. When receiving or buying a modern origamimodel someone would want to know how the model was created,without unfolding it or trying to make it himself.

Not everyone is interested in making origami models, or watch-ing instructional videos to see how the creation was made, but theywant to see something with the ”Wow” effect (new technologiesthat are innovative and captivating for the consumer). Many Aug-mented Reality applications deal exactly with this kind of effect.

In this work, we present an animation for unfolding a complexorigami model, animation, which is superimposed in a real scenefilmed with a digital webcam. We are using the stop motion tech-nique to make the physically manipulated origami model appearto move on its own. The object is moved in small increments be-tween individually photographed frames, creating the illusion ofmovement when the series of frames is played as a continuous se-

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IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality 2012Arts, Media, and Humanities Proceedings5 - 8 November 2012, Atlanta, Georgia978-1-4673-4665-8/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE

quence. The origami was unfolded from the 3D shape back to origi-nal square paper and the process was filmed step-by-step. Then, thevideo was processed in order to make a realistic stop-motion effect.Snapshots from the final video can be seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Snapshots from the Augmented Reverse-Origami simu-lation. The first two images represent the Image markers used foraugmenting the Totoro (Japanese animated character) and Owl stop-motion Movie textures.

3 AUGMENTED REALITY TECHNOLOGY

The registration system relies on one single picture for each origamimodel to augment. It is completely based on instantreality frame-work [1] which provides set of features to support classic VirtualReality (VR) and also advanced Augmented Reality (AR). The in-stantreality framework consists of several modules. It includes themajor systems instantPlayer and instantVision for realtime 3D vi-sualisation and advanced Computer Vision.

For our application we used the VRML standard, included in theframework, to augment the unfolding animation of origami mod-els. The VRML or Virtual Reality Modeling Language is a graph-ics modeling and specification language for interactive animationswith high originality. It allows web developers to desing three di-mensional space and objects in full range of effects and properties.

The tracking methods used by instantreality framework in orderto create markerless tracking applications for Augmented Reality

are a randomized trees based keypoint classifier for pose initializa-tion and a Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) Feature tracker [4], [3].

4 FEEDBACK

In order to have some feedback for our application we asked sixpeople (two were familiar with origami and the rest of four havenot folded any origami models previously) four questions.

1. Do you think this is a complex, intermediate or simple origamimodel? (this Q was asked twice, before and again after thesimulation)

2. On a scale of 1:5 how interesting was the application? (1:amazing, 5: boring)

3. What is the value of Augmented Reality in this work?

4. After seeing the unfolding action of an origami model, wouldyou consider learning origami in the future? (this Q wasmeant only for the four subjects that were not familiar withthe art of origami)

The answers of the survey are synthesized as follows:Seeing how easily an origami model gets unfolded, the first ques-

tion had different answers. Before seeing the simulation, they con-sidered the owl as being a complex model that is difficult to fold.After the augmentation, half of the interviewed subjects changedtheir opinion in considering the model as being an intermediate oneor even a simple one for the connoisseurs.

All people considered the application as being nice or interest-ing. The downside of the application is that we do not augment a 3Dmodel of an origami, but a video containing the unfolding steps instop motion. Half of the subjects considered using Augmented Re-ality as a means of interaction better than watching a simple videoon the computer screen. All four people that were unfamiliar withthe art of origami said they will take into consideration learninghow to fold origami models, our application being the reason ofdiscovering this magical and amazing world of origami.

5 CONCLUSION

The origami models were folded following diagrams provided bypaper artists on the Internet. The final animations were created bythe author of this paper. The Computer Vision and Augmented Re-ality techniques used in this project rely on natural texture featuresand allow seamless integration of virtual and real worlds.

This project demonstrates an innovative way for unfolding themysteries behind complex origami models. Augmented Reality al-lows the integration of real elements (paper) with the virtual ones(animation) into an emerged experience for the user.

Having positive responses for our application using AugmentedReality, as a future work we intend to use for our animations 3Dvirtual objects representing the real origami models.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is supported by the Sectoral Operational Programme Hu-man Resources Development (SOP HRD), ID76945 financed fromthe European Social Fund and by the Romanian Government.

REFERENCES

[1] instantreality. http://www.instantreality.org/.[2] K. Ohashi. The roots of origami and its cultural background. In

Origami science and art: Proceedings of the second international meet-ing of origami science and scientific origami, pages 503–510, 1997.

[3] J. Shi and C. Tomasi. Good features to track. In IEEE Conference onComputer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR94), pages 593–600,1994.

[4] C. Tomasi and T. Kanade. Detection and tracking of point features.Technical report, International Journal of Computer Vision, 1991.

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