The optical filament sensor of the Prusa i3 MK3 ... not the filament was actually moving through the extruder. In theory, this meant the MK3 could sense problems such as a jammed extruder or ...
More interesting, [airtripper] used his new sensor to validate the powers of various extruder gears. These are the gears that actually transfer the driving force of the stepper to the filament itself.