Perceptually relevant browsing environments for large texture databases
Fraser Halley · 2012
or use of any of the information contained in it must acknowledge this thesis as the source of the quotation or information. This thesis describes the development of a large database of texture stimuli, the production of a similarity matrix reflecting human judgements of similarity about the database, and the development of three browsing models that exploit structure in the perceptual information for navigation. Rigorous psychophysical comparison experiments are carried out and the SOM (Self Organising Map) found to be the fastest of the three browsing models under examination. We investigate scalable methods of augmenting a similarity matrix using the SOM browsing environment to introduce previously unknown textures. Further psychophysical experiments reveal our method produces a data organisation that is as fast to navigate as that derived from the perceptual grouping experiments. Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to my esteemed supervisor, Mike Chantler, for his insight and encouragement throughout my PhD. My research involved over 270 experimental sessions and I would like record my thanks to the observers who gave so generously of their time and effort for such meagre reward. It would not have been possible for me to pursue a PhD without the financial support