4D printing to allow for shape-changing materials

London: Imagine buying a dress online thattakes shape in front of your eyes in your living room.  Scientists are developing 4D printing technology to pave   way for 'smart' materials that can change shape by themselves. Researchers are combining different types of plastics and  fibres to create 'smart' materials that change shape when they come into contact with stimuli such as heat or water. Objects designed in this way can expand, fold or unfurl  into pre-designed forms after being printed, in a process    dubbed 4D printing, 'The Times' reported.   

Skylar Tibbits, from the Massachusetts Institute of  Technology, is pioneering the research with Stratasys, a digital manufacturing company.  "We asked if we could print things that change shape and  change properties to behave in precise programmed ways. We  call it 4D because it adds time [considered the fourth  dimension], rather than printing static objects," said Tibbits .   

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, from Nervous System design studio n Somerville, Massachusetts, said he hoped to use 4D printing to create a dress that could be printed in compact form then   unfolded.  Using a scan of the customer's body, the dress could be  designed to fit perfectly and would be created with a series    of tessellating segments. A computer model would then compress the design into the  smallest possible space to fit inside a normal 3D printer. The customer would simply download the design, print it and unfurl  it.