ABSTRACT
As we go about our daily lives, we interact with a huge variety of different materials-most of which have distinct and easily recognizable visual appearances. At a glance we can tell the difference between dough, wood, soap, soil, bronze, silk, skin and countless other kinds of “stuff.” Without touching an object, we usually have a clear idea of what it would feel like just by looking at it: we can tell whether it would be hard, rough, crumbly, malleable, slimy, smooth, or mushy, for example.
