Spot the Difference: Accuracy of Numerical Simulations via the Human Visual System

Comparative evaluation lies at the heart of science, and determining the accuracy of a computational method is crucial for evaluating its potential as well as for guiding future efforts. However, metrics that are typically used have inherent shortcomings when faced with the under-resolved solutions of real-world simulation problems. We show how to leverage the human visual system in conjunction with crowd-sourced user studies to address the fundamental problems of widely used classical evaluation metrics. We demonstrate that such user studies driven by visual perception yield a very robust metric and consistent answers for complex phenomena without any requirements for proficiency regarding the physics at hand. This holds even for cases away from convergence where traditional metrics often end up with inconclusive results. More specifically, we evaluate results of different essentially non-oscillatory (ENO) schemes in different fluid flow settings. Our methodology represents a novel and practical approach for scientific evaluations that can give answers for previously unsolved problems.