ABSTRACT
Both foods and drinks can be transparent or translucent (from now on, we do not di•erentiate the two terms), but not always they appear as such. Ÿe di•erence between transparency and translucency is rather controversial because it usually refers to physical properties of materials, like clear vs. di•use light transmission. From a perceptual point of view, transparency is simply considered as the possibility of seeing something behind and through another object. Ÿe blurring of edges produced by translucent materials is a distinct e•ect from the contrast reduction that characterizes objects seen behind a transparent object. An impression of transparency can arise in simulations where contrast reduction occurs but margins are not blurred (Da Pos et al. 2007). Ÿe reason of the debate on the transparency/translucency terminology is that the de¤nition of transparency is almost always framed in physical terms (transmittance or density). We need a psychological/perceptual de¤- nition which describes the visual appearance, for instance: “transparency is the property of an object through which we can see more or less distinctly
3.1 Introduction 25 3.2 Experiment 27
3.2.1 Material 27 3.2.2 Method 28 3.2.3 Results 29
3.3 Discussion and Conclusions 30 Acknowledgments 32 References 32
what is behind.” Ÿe degree of distinctness of the shape, color, texture, glossiness, and other features of the objects perceived in the background through a transparent object determines di•erent kinds of transparency.
