Perceiving the tactile properties of the fabrics using fabric images, fabric videos, and real fabrics

Tactile properties of fabrics convey vital information and influence customer decision and satisfaction. The understanding of the tactile properties is not comprehensive due to the multiple tactile properties and the various ways of assessing them. Here, we designed a series of psychophysical experiments to evaluate the multiple tactile properties, including flexible-stiff, smooth-rough, soft-firm, spongy-crisp, warm-cool, using images of flat fabric, draped fabric, rotating fabric, and real fabrics where only touch was allowed, only vision was allowed, and both touch and vision were allowed. Our results show that it is necessary to study the separate tactile properties rather than treat them as a whole. The tactile perception remained consistent yet slightly different among images, videos, and real fabrics. However, for warm-cool, highly consistent perception can be obtained regardless of the condition. Additionally, the tactile properties are not completely independent to each other. Positive and negative correlations among the different tactile perceptions were also observed in our study. In addition, the differences between visual representations of fabrics and real fabrics were also observed for the perception of flexible-stiff, smooth-rough, soft-firm, and warm-cool.