This flower will stiffen when you reach out to touch it. The petals are made of fabric, custom-blend silicone, and nitinol, or "muscle wire," and are controlled by a relay-latched light-sensitive circuit. This is one of my first from-scratch electronic objects, and I'm very pleased with the fine control afforded by the materials used here. This project was conceived as an element in Dorkbot Boston's "Haunted Parlor" Halloween project, so I wanted it to be a little unsettling—an uncanny combination of natural forms and unnatural behavior.
Produced in preparation for the Dorkbot Boston "Haunted Parlor" in Davis Square, Halloween 2007. More detailed notes and images available here.