Title: Wobbling, drooping, bouncing—Visual perception of materials and their properties

Abstract: Visual inference of material properties like mass, compliance, elasticity or fragility is crucial to predicting and interacting with our environment. Yet, it is unclear how the brain achieves this remarkable ability. How materials move, flow, fold or deform, depends not only on their internal properties but also on many external factors. For example, the observable behavior of an elastic bouncing object depends on its elasticity but also on its initial position and velocity. Estimating elasticity requires disentangling these different contributions to the observed motion. Predicting the future path of the object requires a forward simulation given the estimated latent parameters. I will present a set of experiments in which we investigated how accurately human observers estimate the elasticity of bouncing objects or predict their future path. Furthermore, I will discuss the nature of the visual information observers use as well as the limitations of their internal model.

The Fall 2021 CBMM Research Meetings will be hosted in a hybrid format. Please see the information included below regarding attending the event either in-person or remotely via Zoom connection

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Details to attend talk remotely via Zoom:

Zoom link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/95324900421?pwd=bUZzVFo4M2oyVTR3Skd3K1BSSlExZz09