While trying to describe his experiences as a sighted person to a friend who is blind, Harvard sophomore Constantine Tarabanis realized there was a gulf that even his verbal descriptions could not bridge. He was especially interested in the difficulty people with vision impairments experience when looking at visual art. Last semester, a light bulb went off: what if there was a way to use 3-D printing technology to “translate” paintings into a form the blind could appreciate? Tarabanis and his roommates began to design a system that would create tactile representations of paintings. They call their idea “Midas Touch,” and hope to have a working prototype soon. Read more: How 3-D Printing Could Help the Blind “See” Paintings

Image description: A 1667 Baroque high-relief sculpture by Francesco Grassia in white marble depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds