This design software reimagines everyday objects as self-aware devices

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and China's Tianjin University have built X-Hinges, design software for 3D printing objects that sense how people touch and move them. According to MIT News, earlier printed devices typically used one conductive material for both sensors and wire-like traces, producing similar signals that were hard to tell apart. X-Hinges automatically embeds two materials instead: a filament chosen for strong sensor signals and another for traces that do not interfere.

Users assemble a design from connected shapes, including cylinder, rectangle, thin outline or custom forms, then select motion along up to three axes: compression, vertical or lateral. The software places sensors where the object bends. Lead author Xiang Chang, a Tianjin PhD student and visiting CSAIL researcher, says most prior methods allow only one axis, often because of signal interference.

Demonstrations include a glove that records finger joint bending and relays it to a humanoid robotic hand, teaching it to grasp blocks; an origami-style lamp that changes brightness when pinched; a surface that identifies objects such as a banana from tactile data; and a shark-shaped game controller. Senior author Jiaji Li, an MIT postdoc, likens the effect to "adding a conscious element" to everyday things.

One limitation is calibration, since printed electrical layouts vary slightly and identical-looking devices can give different readings. The team currently corrects this with a computer vision system and hopes to build in signal recalibration. Li's next goal is printing actuation and sensing together. The paper, also authored by Stefanie Mueller and Haiyang Yan, was slated for presentation at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in early November.