Abstract

In the present paper a review on the study of textures in visual science is presented. Formally, «texture» means a set of properties that characterise a visual object as owning an internal regularity and being distinguishable from other images. Textural properties can be quantitatively described in terms of image statistics. Those properties lead to a peculiar «texture appearance» and provide information about the material properties of an object and its size and distance from an observer. Considering the most recent literature, it is finally discussed how perceiving the size of a visual object is critically affected by its textural characteristics.