Psychophysically based Artistic Techniques for Increased Percieved Realism of Virtual Environments

The perceived realism of a computer generated image depends on the accuracy of the modeling and illumination calculations, the limitations of the display device, and the way in which the Human Visual System processes this information. A real environment is unlikely to be pristine but will have accumulated dirt, dust and scratches from everyday use. Although human observers do not perhaps consciously take note of these phenomena, the absence of such features from the synthetic representation of that real scene may indeed affect the viewer's perceived realism of the virtual environment. This paper presents a series of psychophysical experiments to examine whether perceived realism of a virtual environment may be improved by adding textures artistically enhanced.