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This is using a camera looking at a perforated gel pad as a touch pressure + force direction sensor.

The variety of uses for "point a camera at it" never ceases to amaze me. And they're often cheap enough and reusable enough to be viable to individuals.

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Just think of how much stuff humans use "point eye at" for....

While very true, this is kinda using vision to replace other senses :) E.g. touch here, and sound (reading vibration via laser / optics).

Both of which we can also do, but to very fuzzy degrees (thing visibly squishes -> almost definitely under pressure. surface appears to be vibrating -> probably making noise). We don't have much for vision -> taste though (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_spectroscopy).

And also just think at how well humans who lack this form of sensory input still function

If you want to make realistic estimates of the bounds of how well you can do automation tasks without cameras, sure. But not really relevant for figuring out how useful "point a camera at it" can be.

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