If I have thought of this, hopefully someone who is more scientific and KNOWS how to do it has thought of it. I saw the video on paper that folds itself after being printed on by an ink jet printer and it got me to thinking...
At first, I thought that the ink could have some kind of acid in it, to make the paper thinner (almost like scoring) but you don't want the creases to be the weakest part of the model. Then, I thought it would be better if the ink actually made the paper stronger at the creases, but perhaps more compressed? If the paper had a certain thickness or loft to it, when the ink was applied to one side it could chemically compress the paper and make it shrink? Was thinking that it would have to be some sort of glue, but would be better if it was heat reactive and didn't start the paper creasing as it dried. It could have a color to it, so that you could see the crease pattern, or alternately it could also change color or disappear when heat was applied. That way, you could print the valley folds of a crease pattern on one side (let it dry so that the "glue" wouldn't gum up the rollers) then flip it over and print the mountains on the other side. Then, the fun part would be putting it in the sun, or in a warm oven and watch it fold itself! OK... now someone just has to do it! We have some very smart folders out there!
