the method for measuring the glossiness of a plane object is regulated in jis z 8741. however, no method has been established for the glossiness of a curved surface. for instance, the psychological glossiness g/sub ph/ to humans depends on the radius of curvature of the object even if the material and the surface finish are identical. however, the conventional physical glossiness is almost unrelated to g/sub ph/. a system for measuring the indistinctness-degree glossiness g/sub id/ has been fabricated with a light source, an optical system (lens and slit), and ccd line sensor. this equipment has been used to measure g/sub id/ of metal spheres of various radii, enamel-coated spheres, and a spherical pearl of 8 mm diameter. in all samples, a strong correlation with a correlation factor more than 0.88 has been observed between g/sub id/ and the psychological glossiness g/sub id/. from this fact, it has been found that g/sub id/ is effective as a physical glossiness of a curved surface with a relatively large glossiness