Sam Reinders

Interactive 3D printed models

3D printed models that talk, listen and respond to touch, designed with people who are blind or have low vision for education, travel and museums.

Period
2019 - 2025
My role
PhD candidate
Three views of a gold 3D printed model of the Giza pyramids with a removable Sphinx. First, the model says "Hello and welcome to the Giza Pyramid model...". Second, a user holding the Sphinx asks "What happened to your nose?" and the model replies "Some suggest that my nose was lost due...". Third, a user lifts a pyramid, which vibrates, and asks "Which of you is older?", and the model replies "I am the Great Pyramid, and I was built...".
An embodied interactive 3D printed model of the Giza pyramids, from our CHI 2025 paper.

3D printed models can give people who are blind or have low vision (BLV) access to graphical information such as maps, educational materials and museum exhibits. On their own, though, they carry only limited detail and context, and many interactive models rely on passive audio labels. My PhD, Creating Multimodal Interactive 3D Printed Models with People who are Blind or have Low Vision, supervised by Associate Professor Matthew Butler and Professor Kim Marriott, explored interactive 3D printed models (I3Ms) that support independent exploration and knowledge discovery.

How people want to interact

Six 3D printed models: two bar charts of average city temperatures with removable bars, an animal cell, a park map, a thematic map of Australia’s population, a dissected frog with removable organs, and a solar system with removable planets.

A Wizard-of-Oz study uncovered the interaction techniques BLV people want to use with I3Ms, and their attitudes towards different levels of model agency. These findings shaped a prototype of the solar system. A second study with that model revealed a hierarchy of interaction: BLV users preferred tactile exploration first, then touch gestures to trigger audio labels, and then natural language to fill knowledge gaps and confirm understanding.

Co-designing a conversational Solar System

A 3D printed Solar System: the Sun and eight planets sit in a row on an enclosure. A user double presses Saturn and the model says “Saturn has a radius of 58,232 kilometres”. Labels note that each planet contains a microcontroller, battery, haptic motor and motion sensor, and the enclosure holds a Raspberry Pi, microphone and speaker. At right, a user holds a planet in both hands and asks “Hey Model, what is this?”.

We co-designed a multimodal model of the Solar System with nine blind people and evaluated it with seven more. The model combines a conversational interface with touch and haptic vibration. From this we drew design recommendations centred on blind users’ desire for independence and control, customisation, comfort, and use of prior experience.

Models that come to life

Research with sighted people shows that giving machines human-like behaviours can make them seem more lifelike, which can increase engagement and trust. In the first exploration of embodied I3Ms, a controlled study with 12 BLV participants found that design factors such as haptic vibration and embodied, personified voices increased the sense of liveliness, embodiment and engagement, but had a mixed impact on trust. This work received a Best Paper Award at ACM CHI 2025.

Publications