Effect of Low-level Visual Details in Perception of Deformation

We quantitatively measure how different low-level visual details can influence people's perceived stiffness of a deformable sphere under physically based simulation. The result can be used to create a metric for artists in designing textures to enhance or reduce the stiffness perceived by a viewer. We use a checkerboard texture to render the simulation of a free falling sphere that collides with the ground and bounces up. We vary the spatial frequency and contrast of the checkerboard pattern according to results seen in a previous study on the Spatial-Temporal Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF). We find that checkerboard pattern with certain combinations of spatial frequency and contrast can reduce the perceived stiffness. We also add a high contrast checkerboard background to study how complex backgrounds can influence the effect of low-level details in textures of foreground objects. Our study shows that the effect of low-level visual details in foreground objects observed previously disappears in this situation. This indicates the importance of background, even if it is static.