Mixed-Reality AI Assistant Teaches Hands-On Skills

A wave of newly homebound people got the itch to knit during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in response, scores of knitters recorded how-to videos and posted them on YouTube.

"But videos don't give you feedback," said , an assistant professor in 온라인바카라's . She and , associate research professor in the School of Computer Science's , think artificial intelligence offers a better way.

El-Zanfaly and Kitani lead the development of , an AI-powered mixed-reality system that assists beginners in creating origami. Along with graduate students from both SCS and School of Design, they recently presented their research at the Association for Computing Machinery (CHI 2025) in Yokohama, Japan.

Origami Sensei employs a type of AI — computer vision — to monitor the beginner's work. The vision system is tied to a projector, which can project imagery directly on the workspace to identify a problem or demonstrate the next step.

"You don't just get feedback; you get personalized feedback," El-Zanfaly said.

The system might not be as good as a human tutor, but human tutors are a limited resource.

"If you have an instructor, they would typically teach five or 10 people," El-Zanfaly said. "Origami Sensei is like having your own tutor, one-on-one. You can do things at your own pace."

The system can't yet be paused or put in reverse, but she said those features could easily be added.

What they learned in developing the origami tutoring system applies to other domains — knitting, yes, but also sculpting and physical computing. The team plans to take on welding next.

 Learn more about Origami Sensei on the .