An investigation into the sensory properties of materials

An initial matrix of material representation was established for studying human perception and response to different materials. A conceptual discrimination was clarified between texture and texture perception. Analysis of the preliminary results from the psychological tests have enabled four character dimensions of texture description to be proposed: geometrical dimension; physical-chemical dimension; emotional dimension; and associative dimension. Lexicons within these dimensions were found to be slightly different in responsive sensitiveness under different conditions (material surface finish, sensory conditions, subject groups etc.). A comparison was made between visual touch and blindfold touch. With the proposed dimension-lexicon system, people could subjectively describe the material texture in a common way. keywords materials, sensory perception, tactual texture, product design