Users can select the strips’ length and the direction and angle at which they’ll bend. They can also choose whether the zipped-up device will appear straight, bent, coiled, or twisted. 

A tent making use of the zipper takes just 80 seconds to set up. A wrist cast that incorporates it can be tightened and loosened as desired. A motor can even be added so that, for example, a robot’s leg heights could change with the push of a button.

“A regular zipper is great for closing up flat objects, like a jacket, but Freeman ideated something more dynamic,” says MIT postdoc Jiaji Li, a lead author on a paper presenting the project. “We’ve developed a process that builds objects you can rapidly shift from flexible to rigid, and you can be confident they’ll work in the real world.”