This exhibition presents a series of tactile 3D-printed reliefs that translate paintings and images into touchable physical artifacts. Using generative AI and computational fabrication techniques, the work explores how visual media can be transformed into objects that convey texture, depth, and material presence through touch. The pieces invite visitors to engage with images beyond sight alone, offering an alternative way of experiencing visual content that foregrounds physical interaction, accessibility, and material understanding.
I was invited to present and demonstrate my work on tactile surface generation and fabrication-aware generative models at the Navigating Contact Dynamics in Robotics workshop at RSS 2025. The workshop brought together researchers across robotics, haptics, and interaction to explore how contact, material properties, and physical dynamics shape intelligent systems for Physical AI.
MechStyle, a system developed at MIT, enables users to upload a 3D model or preset asset of everyday items, then prompt a generative AI model using images or text to personalize it. The system keeps the design structurally sound before it's 3D printed.
MIT CSAIL's "TactStyle" system uses image prompts to replicate both the visual appearance and touch-based properties of 3D models. It could help create home décor, personal accessories, and tactile learning tools from a single image input.
What if your 3D printer could think more like an intelligent assistant, able to reason through a design idea, ask questions, and deliver something that works exactly the way the user envisioned it? That's the kind of future Faraz Faruqi, a senior PhD student at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), is working toward. And for Faruqi, it's not just about technical breakthroughs: it's about making 3D printing personal, intuitive, and radically more inclusive.
MIT researchers developed a user-friendly interface that enables a maker to customize the color, texture, and shape of the aesthetic characteristics of an open-source 3D model from an online repository, without affecting the functionality of the fabricated object.