Seeing a 3-D World :

DEPTH PERCEPTION
Psychology 135
CFTiangco
UPDEPP
 The retinal images from which depth
information is extracted are two-dimensional:
they are inherently depthless
 Depth perception occurs effortlessly and
without thought, despite being derived from a
two-dimensional image on the retina
 Major sources of depth information
DEPTH
INFORMATION

OCULOMOTOR VISUAL

BINOCULAR MONOCULAR
Accommodati Convergenc
on e
Static Cues Motion Parallax

Interposition Size Perspective

Oculomotor cues
Oculomotor Cues to Depth

 To be seen clearly, close

objects require more
accommodation and
convergence than do
objects farther away from
you
 By monitoring the degree
of muscular contraction, we
could compute either of 2
values: your angle of
convergence or the amount
of accommodation from the
lenses of your eyes
 Can people judge distance under conditions
where accommodation and convergence
provide the only cues to depth?
(1)Limited effective range for accommodation –
objects in front of you
(2)Limited effective range for convergence –20
feet and beyond
Binocular cues
Binocular visual fields
 To make use of binocular depth cues, an
organism must have a binocular visual field -- a
region of overlapping visibility for the two eyes.
 Different animals have different extents of
binocular visual fields. In general, predators
have both eyes on the front of their heads, and
consequently have large binocular visual fields.
In contrast, prey typically have one eye on either
side of their heads, and consequently have
small, if any, binocular visual fields.
Binocular Visual Depth Information:
Stereopsis
 Stereopsis : perception of relative depth from
binocular vision
 Allows us to judge relative depth with great
accuracy and it enables is to see objects that
are invisible to either eye alone
 Retinal disparity as the stimulus of stereopsis
 The magnitude of the disparity depends on
the distance between objects
 if one object is closer to the observer than
the other, large disparity
 if one object is only slightly closer to the
observer than the other, small disparity
Retinal disparity
 Although humans have large binocular visual fields,
each eye is getting a slightly different view of the
world because the two eyes are in slightly different
positions.
 Retinal disparity is the difference between the lateral
position of object in the left and right eyes
 Retinal disparity arises
whenever objects are
located in front of or behind
the object you are looking at
 If an object lies farther from
you than the object you are
fixating on, the disparity
between the two is said to
be uncrossed
 If an object is located closer
to you than the one you are
looking at, the disparity is
said to be crossed
 Horopter: imaginary plane where each object on the
plane casts images on corresponding parts of both eyes.
Includes the point of fixation.
 Objects same distance from observer as fixation yield zero
disparity
 Objects on the horopter cast images on corresponding points of
both eyes
 In this picture, the lifeguard is fixating on Ralph. The
curved, dashed line represents the horopter: all points
on this line are the same distance from the lifeguard
as the fixation point. So, Susan and Harry (and Ralph)
fall on the horopter; Carol and Charlie do not.
 In the 1830s, Wheatstone developed a device with which
to view stereograms: the stereoscope. This device
presented one two-dimsensional view of a scene to one
eye, and a slightly different two-dimensional view to the
other eye.
 When the brain received these slightly different views
from the two eyes, it integrated them into one three-
dimensional scene. In other words, the disparity between
the two scenes enabled the observer to see depth.
Random dot stereograms
 In the 1960s (~130 years after the invention of
the stereoscope), Julesz developed random dot
stereograms.
 In a random dot stereogram, each eye sees only
a collection of spatially random dots. But when
the information from the two eyes is combined,
the observer can see depth, and the depth can
define a form. In this case, then, depth
perception can precede form perception.
 In random dot stereograms, neither eye sees any
clear form on its own. The percept of form follows the
percept of depth. If no clear form is perceived in either
monocular view, how does the visual system know
which features in one eye's view match up with which
feature's in the other eye's view?

 This question is known as the correspondence

problem for stereovision.
 spatial frequency information plays a role in solving the
correspondence problem
 we need overlapping spatial frequency information in the two
eyes to see stereo
Do we all have stereopsis?
 NO!! There are great individual
difference in stereovision abilities.
 (5-10% of humans) is stereoblind
 Stereopsis requires properly working
binocular cells
 Properly working binocular cells require
normal visual experience
 Kittens raised with only one eye open at
a time do not develop normal binocular
cells, even though they appear to be
normal in every other respect
 Humans who had abnormal early visual
experiences (e.g., strabismus), often do
not have stereovision. There is a critical
period for the development of binocular
cells (and consequently stereovision). If
the problem causing abnormal early
visual experience is not caught early
enough, it can lead to permanent
damage.
 Binocular vision can produce partial occlusion,
a special form of retinal disparity
 when one object partially occludes another
more distant object, one eye will see portions
of the more distant object that are invisible to
the other eye
Monocular cues
 Occlusion: Closer objects partly block the
view of more distant objects.
 Occlusion leads to a percept of depth (you see the
occluding object as closer than the occluded
object).
 Occlusion also enables us to complete and
recognize objects.
 Occlusion is closely related to other perceptual
phenomena such as transparency and illusory
contours.
 By 7 months of age, human infants can judge
relative distance solely on the basis of
occlusion
 Occlusion is such a strong depth cue that it
can override retinal disparity when the two
cues conflict
 The effectiveness of occlusion is amplified
when the surface of the occluding object
contains high spatial frequency information
 Objects occluded by a
nearer figure are seen
as complete, even
though portions of their
surfaces are obscured
by the nearer object
(amodal completion)
 Size: As the distance between you and an
object varies, the sixe of the image of that
object on your retina changes
 Smaller objects often appear to be more
distant than identical larger objects
 Familiar size is an effective cue to distance in
the absence of other information. BUT the
cue of retinal size critically depends on
knowing the correct size of the object
Perception of size and depth perception
 An object can look the same size at different
distances But: retinal image size changes with
distance
 Increase distance : decrease retinal image size
 Decrease distance : increase retinal image size
 The fact that an object can look the same size
regardless of changing retinal image size is
referred to as size constancy
 These three disks look to be the same size,
but at different depths. In fact, they vary
greatly in terms of their retinal image sizes.
 The fact that we have size constancy means
that perceived size depends on more than just
retinal image size.
 We seem to take perceived distance into
account as well.
 This link between perceived size and
perceived distance is known as size-distance
scaling.
 We can formalize the notion of size-distance
scaling in terms of Emmert's law:
 Emmert’s law: relationship of perceived depth
of a fixed retinal image
 Linear perspective: Lines that are parallel in the
real world appear to converge in a drawing.
 The greater the distance, the greater the
convergence.
 At infinity, lines meet at the vanishing point.
 Texture gradients: Texture is more dense in a
distant object than in an identical closer object.
 If there is no variation in texture density, no depth will
be perceived.
 An abrupt change in texture implies a depth
discontinuity (a sharp bend).
 Aerial perspective: More distant objects are
perceived less clearly than closer objects.
 The further the light must travel to reach the eye,
the more likely that light will be interfered with in
some way by matter.
 Aerial perspective sometimes is called
atmospheric perspective because the effect is
due to the atmosphere interfering with light.
 Scattering of light reduces contrast and blurs the
clarity of objects’ details
 Shading: Three-dimensional objects cast
shadows, so 3D objects tend to have
luminance gradients.
 In perceiving depth from shading, we make certain
default assumptions about lighting
 There is only one light source.
 Light comes from above.
 "Above" is defined retinally, not environmentally (i.e., the
light seems to come from the same direction as the top of
your head, even when you turn your head on its side).
 Because we assume that there is only one light source, and that
that light source is from above, if an object is brighter on the top
than on the bottom, we'll perceive that object as convex (like the
"eggs" that form an X in this picture).
 In contrast, if the object is brighter on the bottom than on the top,
we'll perceive that object as concave (like the "holes" in this
picture).
MOVING

 Motion Parallax
 Objects at different distances from fixation move at
different rates and directions on your retina.
 Motion parallax can be thought of a disparity across
time in contrast to the disparity across eyes seen in
stereovision.
 Net result is the same: by integrating information about
slightly different views across time, you see depth.
 Note that disparity from motion parallax is equivalent to
disparity from stereopsis when the head/eye is moved
the distance between the two eyes.
 Note how the retinal positions of the objects change as the eye moves
from left to right. These differences in position give disparity across time:
motion parallax.
End.