HyperGami is a design environment for paper sculpture built upon the
MacScheme system (LightShip Software). The user chooses from a number of
starting polyhedra (we've shown one of several available palettes; center
right). The selected polyhedron appears in the ThreeD window (bottom right)
and a corresponding "folding net" appears in the TwoD window (bottom left).
The user can employ both built-in features and the embedded programming
language to customize the polyhedron. For example, he may (among other
operations) stretch or shrink the polyhedron along its axes, truncate it
at vertices, or add pyramidal caps to faces.
Once the user is done customizing his new shape, the system will attempt
to generate a folding net for it. The user may then work with a variety
of paint tools to decorate the folding net; finally, he can print out the
decorated net on a color printer, and assemble it into a paper model.
We ask that you register with us before downloading HyperGami so that we have an idea of who is using the software. Just send email to the address below with your name, email address, snailmail address (optional, but we would like to know what country/part of the US you are from), and occupation (also optional, but we are especially interested in corresponding with mathematics educators, scientists, and artists).
Send email to eisenbea@cs.colorado.edu to become a registered user of HyperGami and for directions to our restricted download area.
Mike Eisenberg is supported in part by NSF grants RED-9253425 and a
Young Investigator award IRI-9258684. Ann Eisenberg is supported by a fellowship
from the National Physical Science Consortium. HyperGami is also supported
in part by the National Science Foundation and the Advanced Research Projects
Agency under Cooperative Agreement No. CDA-940860. We would also like to
thank Apple Computer, Inc. for donating the machines with which this research
was conducted.