Interrelation between gloss and texture perception of 2.5D-printed surfaces

The relation between perceived gloss levels and the texture height of a surface (sometimes referred to as bumpiness) has previously been investigated through several psychophysical experiments, which have suggested that a surface is perceived more glossy when the amount of texture is increased, and likewise, a surface is perceived more textured when the gloss level is increased. However, these studies have only been conducted using computer simulations as stimuli instead of physical surfaces or objects. The latter case is investigated in this paper, where physical samples of surfaces varying in surface gloss and texture levels were created by a 2.5D printing system. Psychophysical experiments were then conducted using these samples to investigate the influence of the macroscale texture characteristics on the perceived magnitude of surface glossiness. Although our results show that the influence of the gloss level on the perceived surface texture is negligible, they do confirm the existence of a slight influence of surface texture on the perception of surface glossiness.