MIT revives Bill Freeman's three-sided zipper after 40 years in a garage

In 1985, electrical engineer Bill Freeman imagined a zipper that could do more than join two pieces of material. His three-sided design used a slider to bring three strips together, potentially changing the shape and stiffness of objects. The idea was rejected by an innovation fund, but Freeman patented the mechanism and kept his prototype in his garage. Four decades later, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have revisited the concept using 3D printing and digital design tools. Their Y-zipper can transform from a flexible, open structure into rods, curves and other shapes, with potential applications ranging from tents to robots.How Freeman’s rejected 1985 zipper became a patented prototypeFreeman's original idea dates to 1985, when he was working as an electrical engineer at Polaroid. An advertisement in Scientific American from the Innovative Design Fund caught his attention. The fund was offering up to $10,000 for inventive prototypes involving areas such as clothing, textiles and home decor, as reported by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).Freeman submitted an idea that looked familiar at first glance but worked in a very diff...