Perception of gap and flush in virtual environments

Journal article, 2007

This paper presents result from an experiment with the aim to screen 10 parameters that could have an impact on how distance is judged in virtual environments when evaluating the visual quality appearance of industrial design concepts in the automotive industry. In order to reduce the number of experimental runs, a D-optimal design was used. The difference in the two responses in gap distance and the difference in flush distance (denoted DeltaFlush) was investigated. The results from the study show that the two most significant effects for DeltaGap are viewing mode and type of split line.The two most significant effects for DeltaFlush are gap and flush. In order to reduce the error in distance judgement, the gap should be evaluated in a stereographic view combined with texture, Clear Coat, similar colours, and full model. Flush should be evaluated with small distance of the gap on the same split line, similar colours of parts and with a full model. The next step is to validate the results by configuring the virtual environments in accordance with the result and perform a similar evaluation with the same group of participants.