Pairwise comparisons and visual perceptions of 3D shape volume estimation

Abstract

Using pairwise comparisons for estimations increases accuracy. At present, scholars use the pairwise comparisons method to make subjective comparison between one-dimensional image and two-dimensional images. This research is about the subjective comparison of three-dimensional images. We rst sets a xed object volume and then uses the random method to generate multiple three-dimensional objects with di erent shapes and then scale them to our designed volume values. This study also virtualizes and binarizes the image and prints the actual object in the way of 3D printing for respondents to observe. Thirty-two respondents used the direct and pairwise comparisons methods to rate the volume of ve randomly generated 3D shapes. It is found that using the direct method, the observer's estimation errors is higher (in average) than when the paired comparisons method is used. The pairwise comparisons method can improve the accuracy of estimating the volume of random objects.