Edward Adelson
Edward Adelson researches computer vision and artificial touch. His shared work includes steerable filters and GelSight, which converts physical surface contact into images. Adelson and William Freeman co-authored The Design and Use of Steerable Filters. The filters combine basis filters linearly to produce different orientations, with applications to edges, shading and image analysis. Adelson and Micah Kimo Johnson published their earlier GelSight paper in 2009. They later developed a version that images the deformation of a coated transparent gel to measure surface shape. In 2014, a robot used a smaller GelSight sensor to insert a USB cable. Adelson’s MIT team built the sensor, and Robert Platt’s Northeastern team developed the controller and ran the experiments.
- Works
- 298
- Citations
- 42,112
- h-index
- 83
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1991
Steerable visual filters
Adelson and William Freeman co-authored The Design and Use of Steerable Filters. The filters combine basis filters linearly to produce different orientations, with applications to edges, shading and image analysis.
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2009–2011
GelSight optical touch
Adelson and Micah Kimo Johnson published their earlier GelSight paper in 2009. A later version that images the deformation of a coated transparent gel to measure surface shape.
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2014
Tactile robot manipulation
In 2014, a robot used a smaller GelSight sensor to insert a USB cable. Adelson’s MIT team built the sensor, and Robert Platt’s Northeastern team developed the controller and ran the experiments.
Sources and credits
Photo: csail.mit.edu; Ted Adelson | MIT CSAIL; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: csail.mit.edu. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.