In 1985, the Innovative Design Fund placed an ad in Scientific American offering up to $10,000 to support clever prototypes for clothing, home decor, and textiles. William Freeman Ph.D., then an electrical engineer at Polaroid and now an MIT professor, saw it and submitted a novel idea: a three-sided zipper. Instead of fastening pants, it'd be like a switch that seamlessly flipped chairs, tents, and purses between soft and rigid states, making them easier to pack and put together.
I feel I’d have to see it in action, on a use case, to understand its use.
The video shows a robot with variable leg lengths where the excess is stored in a round drum.
Mickey Mouse eared robot legs is not something I thought I would see when the title of the post is: three-sided zippers.
There’s a video in the article showing a few, like pitching a tent and then taking it down.