MIT researchers reported on August 5, 2026, a 3D-printing system called ShiftLens that produces objects whose surfaces change appearance when a user presses, slides or turns part of them, without internal electronics. The design combines a layer of tiny lenticular lenses over a patterned backplane; shifting the lens layer brings different image strips into view. Objects could be printed in one pass on a multimaterial 3D printer, according to the report.

In demonstrations, the team fabricated a chemical bottle that shows a green check mark when its cap is tight and a red exclamation mark when loose, plus a tic-tac-toe game with squares showing a red X, blue O or nothing depending on knob direction. Yunyi Zhu, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and lead author, said the chief challenge was aligning optical effects, mechanical linkages and computational graphics.

The report noted limitations: ShiftLens needs a shifting motion between layers, so suitable objects must have built-in motion such as a rotating tube or an added switch, knob or roller. The team plans to develop a design algorithm requiring fewer inputs and to support more actuation mechanisms. The research was to be presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.