Quantification of the effect of colour appearance and materials on the visual-tactile properties of fabrics

This paper presents the results of experiments to evaluate the human perception of the visual-tactile properties: flexible-stiff, smooth-rough and soft-firm of fabrics as seen on a mobile-phone display. The aim of this study was to test whether different colours and different fabrics have significant effects on these properties, and to evaluate the differences between the effects of these parameters. Eighty images, representing four fabrics and 20 colours, were used to judge the human responses to tactile properties. The results showed that observers can be significantly affected by colour when assessing smoothness, roughness, softness and firmness on woollen wool fabric, while most colours have no significant effect on the human perception of flexibility and stiffness. Fabric materials which have different textures have more significant effects than colour for smoothness, roughness, softness and firmness, but there is little difference between the effects of colour and fabric material when assessing flexibility and stiffness