Gizmodo: Humans Can Detect Buried Objects Without Touching Them, Study Finds. “In a study published this past October in the journal IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning, researchers found that, similarly to some shorebirds, we have a form of ‘remote touch.’ Simply put, when you move your hand through granular materials like sand, you can feel an object buried in said […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/12/04/gizmodo-humans-can-detect-buried-objects-without-touching-them-study-finds/

UC Berkeley News: Why did medieval readers kiss, smudge and deface their books?. “Examine a medieval text, and you’ll see images of certain characters with their faces erased of all detail or entire scenes that are cloudy from repeated touch. It may seem like such imperfections were accrued over centuries of wear and tear, but often these defacements came directly from medieval readers, who […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/17/uc-berkeley-news-why-did-medieval-readers-kiss-smudge-and-deface-their-books/

MIT: 3D modeling you can feel. “Fundamental to the uniqueness of physical objects are their tactile properties, such as roughness, bumpiness, or the feel of materials like wood or stone. Existing modeling methods often require advanced computer-aided design expertise and rarely support tactile feedback that can be crucial for how we perceive and interact with the physical world. With that in […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/29/mit-3d-modeling-you-can-feel/