Researchers at MIT and Tianjin University in China made new software called X-Hinges. It helps people design objects for 3D printers. These objects can sense movement and respond to people. Users connect shapes and choose up to three directions of movement. The software adds sensors at places that bend. These small parts turn movement into electrical signals.
Other parts carry the signals through each object. The software uses different materials for the sensors and these paths. This helps keep their signals separate and makes the readings more accurate. The team made a glove for different hand sizes. It measures finger movements and sends this information to a robot hand. The hand then copies the movements. Another test object is a folding lamp. Its light changes when someone squeezes it closed. A third device can recognize objects, such as a banana, through touch. The team also made a shark-shaped game controller. Players move its tail up and down.
Small differences during printing can make similar objects give different readings. The researchers made a system that uses computer vision to correct these differences. Computer vision helps computers understand images. They hope to build this correction into future versions. Later, they want one printing process to make objects that both sense touch and move.
