The following is a summary of “Crystal or jelly? Effect of color on the perception of translucent materials with photographs of real-world objects,” published in the February 2022 issue of Ophthalmology by Liao, et al.

Translucent materials, such as teeth, food, and wax, are abundant in nature, but understanding how humans perceive transparency is limited. Previous research on translucency perception has mainly used computer-generated images, which have limited diversity and realism. For a study, the researchers used photographs of real-world objects to measure translucency perception. 

Participants completed three tasks: binary classification of “translucent” versus “opaque,” rating of perceptual qualities (including see-throughness, glossiness, softness, glow, and density), and material categorization. Two groups of observers completed the tasks with either color or grayscale images. 

They found that the agreement between observers depended on the physical material properties of the objects, with more disagreements among observers for translucent materials. Additionally, there were more disagreements among observers for grayscale images than color images. They also found that converting images to grayscale altered the distribution of attribute ratings for some images and affected the perceived material categories for some objects. The see-throughness, glossiness, and glow ratings could predict observers’ binary classifications of the images in grayscale and color conditions. Finally, they discussed the importance of individual differences in material perception and suggested that mid-level semantic estimation of material attributes may be closely related to high-level material recognition. 

Overall, the study demonstrated that color was informative for material property estimation and recognition and highlights the need for more diverse and realistic stimuli in future studies of translucency perception.

Reference: jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2778489