Effect of scenario on perceptual sensitivity to errors in animation

A deeper understanding of what makes animation perceptually plausible would benefit a number of applications, such as approximate collision detection and goal-directed animation. In a series of psychophysical experiments, we examine how measurements of perceptual sensitivity in realistic physical simulations compare to similar measurements done in more abstract settings. We find that participant tolerance for certain types of errors is significantly higher in a realistic snooker scenario than in the abstract test settings previously used to examine those errors. By contrast, we find there is no difference in tolerance vs. the abstract setting when those errors are displayed in a realistic but more neutral environment. Additionally, we examine the interaction of auditory and visual cues in determining participant sensitivity to spatiotemporal errors in rigid body collisions. We find that participants are predominantly affected by visual cues. Finally, we find that tolerance for spatial gaps during collision events is constant for a wide range of viewing angles if the effect of foreshortening and occlusion caused by the viewing angle is taken into account.