Rapid Material Perception

描述（由申请人提供）：材料的视觉感知是人类视觉的基本组成部分，但目前尚未得到很好的理解。人们在日常生活中不断依赖于物质感知。例如导航（我是不是要踩到结冰的地方了？）、饮食（这奶油奶酪发霉了吗？）、择偶（我的约会对象的皮肤看起来健康吗？）以及医疗诊断（这是不是一颗可疑的痣？）以往对物质感知的研究主要采用简单、可控的刺激。这个项目将研究各种各样的自然刺激，比如发生在现实世界中的刺激。为了做到这一点，将开发与材料感知中常用的技术完全不同的新技术。还将开发新的图像数据库。在一组实验中，受试者将看到由不同材料制成的固定形状的物体，研究人员将评估受试者判断和描述材料质量的能力。在另一组实验中，受试者将从有限的类别中观看图像（例如，塑料、纸、布或金属），研究人员将测量分类的速度和准确性。有证据表明，人类观察者可以极其迅速地提取物质信息，实验将量化这种能力的过程。在其他实验中，受试者将看到以各种方式退化的图像，这将阐明各种因素（如颜色，对比度和细节）在材料感知中的重要性。该项目将为未来在现实世界中的材料感知工作提供基础。对这些基本问题的理解将有助于理解一些实际的视觉问题。例如，随着人们年龄的增长，他们的视力会下降，更难发现地面或人行道上的滑块。材料感知科学将有助于制定关于人行道和走廊使用的照明、布局和材料的建议。在另一个例子中，当医生在远程医疗中评估患者（即通过视频链接查看患者）时，不同类型的图像退化将导致判断诸如伤口、皮疹或痣等外观的不同困难。材料感知科学可以提高视频质量，这对远程医疗环境至关重要。公共卫生相关性：对材料的视觉感知是一种基本的视觉能力。退化的视力限制了人们对人行道的滑度、食物的新鲜程度或皮肤的健康状况做出基本判断的能力。我们对这些能力知之甚少，所提出的研究将为物质感知的理论和实践理解奠定一些基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The visual perception of materials is a basic part of human vision, but is currently not well understood. People depend on material perception constantly in daily life. Examples are in navigation (Am I about to step on an icy patch?), eating (Is this cream cheese moldy?), mate selection (Does my date have healthy looking skin?), and medical diagnosis (Is this a suspicious looking mole?). Prior research in material perception has mainly used simple, controllable stimuli. This project will study a diverse range of naturalistic stimuli, such as occur in the real world. In order to do so, novel techniques that are quite different from those commonly used in material perception will be developed. New image databases will also be developed. In one set of experiments, subjects will see objects of a fixed shape made of different materials, and the researchers will assess the subjects' ability to judge and describe material qualities. In another set of experiments, subjects will view images from a finite set of categories, (for example, plastic, paper, cloth, or metal) and the researchers will measure the speed and accuracy of categorization. There is evidence that human observers can extract material information extremely rapidly, the experiments will quantify the course of this capability. In other experiments, subjects will see images that are degraded in various ways, which will elucidate the importance of various factors such as color, contrast, and detail in material perception. The project will provide a foundation for future work on material perception in the real world. An understanding of these basic issues would help in understanding some practical visual problems. For example, as people get older, their vision degrades, making it more difficult to detect slippery patches of floors or sidewalks. A science of material perception would help in developing recommendations on the lighting, layout, and materials used in sidewalks and corridors. In another example, when a physician is evaluating a patient in telemedicine (i.e., viewing the patient over a video link), different kinds of image degradation will lead to different difficulties in judging the appearance of, say, a wound, a rash, or a mole. A science of material perception could lead to improvements in video quality that are essential to the telemedicine setting. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The visual perception of materials is an essential visual capability. Degraded vision limits the ability to make basic judgments about the slipperiness of a sidewalk, the freshness of food, or the health of skin. Little is known about these capabilities, and the proposed research will establish some of the foundations needed for a theoretical and practical understanding of material perception.