Can a touch sensor also see? Transparent tactile sensors merge vision and feel

Existing tactile sensors are opaque, blocking visual feedback; vision sensors fail at close range. TransTac solves this by embedding UV-reflective markers in transparent elastomer, letting a binocular camera simultaneously capture contact shape and scene geometry. A lightweight detector tracks semitransparent markers during deformation, while a prior-guided stereo algorithm improves 3D reconstruction robustness by 21%. The system achieves 83% zero-shot recognition on tactile images and shows much stronger alignment with natural images, opening pathways for robotic manipulation that combines global awareness with precise local contact feedback.