Abstract
Doors afford the action of entry and exit from an enclosed space. Although doors usually swing about an axis of rotation which falls along one of its side edges, some types of doors like pivot doors, rotate about an intermediate pivot axis, with the surface of the door extending on both sides of the axis. The current study investigated the optical information available to detect the position of the axis of rotation of rectangular panels like doors. At the axis of rotation, the rate of change of optical angle subtended by texture elements, at the point of observation is zero. This information allows the observer to perceive the location of the axis. Participants indicated the location of the axis of rotation of a rotating panel in a virtual environment, viewed using a head mounted display, as quickly and accurately as possible. On each trial, the surface of the panel and its background had either no texture or had texture in the form of black dots. There were four texture conditions; (1) no texture on either the background or the panel, (2) texture on the panel but not on the background, (3) texture on the background but not on the panel, (4) texture on both the background and the panel. Also, the position of the axis of rotation, and the linear velocity of the edge farthest from the axis were varied. Results indicate that the presence of texture and higher velocity of rotation helps in the detection of the axis of rotation. Response time was faster, and accuracy was better when there was texture on the panel and the background, compared to no texture at all. The results suggest the importance of texture information and has implications in the design of doors and built environments.