A Low-Parameter Rendering Algorithm for Fine Textures

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel rendering algorithm for virtual textures, specifically those with characteristic length scales below 1 mm. By leveraging the relatively lossy mode of human tactile perception at this length scale, a virtual texture with wide-band spectral characteristics can be reduced to a spatial sequence of single-frequency texels, where each frequency is pulled stochastically from a distribution. A psychophysical study was conducted to demonstrate that, below a limiting physical texel length, virtual textures defined by identical frequency distributions are perceptually indiscriminable. Additionally, an exploratory study mapped the distribution parameters of the texel-based rendering to spectral characteristics of perceptually similar multi-frequency virtual textures.