Isotropic integration of binocular disparity and relative motion in the perception of three-dimensional shape

Richards (1985) showed that veridical three-dimensional shape may be recovered from the integration of binocular disparity and retinal motion information, but proposed that this integration may only occur for horizontal retinal motion. Psychophysical evidence supporting the combination of stereo and motion information is limited to the case of horizontal motion (Johnston et al., 1994), and has been criticised on the grounds of potential object boundary cues to shape present in the stimuli. We investigated whether veridical shape can be recovered under more general conditions. Observers viewed cylinders that were defined by binocular disparity, two-frame motion or a combination of disparity and motion, presented at simulated distances of 30 cm, 90 cm or 150 cm. Horizontally and vertically oriented cylinders were rotated about vertical and horizontal axes. When rotation was about the cylinder's own axis, no boundary cues to shape were introduced. Settings were biased for the disparity and two-frame motion stimuli, while more veridical shape judgements were made under all conditions for combined cue stimuli. These results demonstrate that the improved perception of three-dimensional shape in these stimuli is not a consequence of the presence of object boundary cues, and that the combination of disparity and motion is not restricted to horizontal image motion.     

Binocular fusion in Panum''''s limiting case of stereopsis obeys the uniqueness constraint

In the information processing procedure of stereo vision, the uniqueness constraint has been used as one of the constraints to solve the "correspondence problem". While the uniqueness constraint is valid in most cases, whether it is still valid in some particular stimulus configuration (such as Panum's limiting case) has been a problem of widespread debate for a long time. To investigate the problem, we adopted the Panum's limiting case as its basic stimulus configuration, and delved into the phenomenon of binocular fusion from two distinct aspects: visual direction and orientation disparity. The results show that in Panum's limiting case binocular fusion does not comply with the rules governing regular binocular fusion as far as visual direction and orientation disparity are concerned. This indicates that double fusion does not happen in Panum's limiting case and that the uniqueness constraint is still valid.     

Binocular fusion in Panum’s limiting case of stereopsis obeys the uniqueness constraint

In the information processing procedure of stereo vision, the uniqueness constraint has been used as one of the constraints to solve the “correspondence problem”. While the uniqueness constraint is valid in most cases, whether it is still valid in some particular stimulus configuration (such as Panum’s limiting case) has been a problem of widespread debate for a long time. To investigate the problem, we adopted the Panum’s limiting case as its basic stimulus configuration, and delved into the phenomenon of binocular fusion from two distinct aspects: visual direction and orientation disparity. The results show that in Panum’s limiting case binocular fusion does not comply with the rules governing regular binocular fusion as far as visual direction and orientation disparity are concerned. This indicates that double fusion does not happen in Panum’s limiting case and that the uniqueness constraint is still valid.     

Binocular fusion in Panum’s limiting case of stereopsis obeys the uniqueness constraint

In the information processing procedure of stereo vision, the uniqueness constraint has been used as one of the constraints to solve the “correspondence problem”. While the uniqueness constraint is valid in most cases, whether it is still valid in some particular stimulus configuration (such as Panum’s limiting case) has been a problem of widespread debate for a long time. To investigate the problem, we adopted the Panum’s limiting case as its basic stimulus configuration, and delved into the phenomenon of binocular fusion from two distinct aspects: visual direction and orientation disparity. The results show that in Panum’s limiting case binocular fusion does not comply with the rules governing regular binocular fusion as far as visual direction and orientation disparity are concerned. This indicates that double fusion does not happen in Panum’s limiting case and that the uniqueness constraint is still valid.     

On the inverse problem of binocular 3D motion perception

It is shown that existing processing schemes of 3D motion perception such as interocular velocity difference, changing disparity over time, as well as joint encoding of motion and disparity, do not offer a general solution to the inverse optics problem of local binocular 3D motion. Instead we suggest that local velocity constraints in combination with binocular disparity and other depth cues provide a more flexible framework for the solution of the inverse problem. In the context of the aperture problem we derive predictions from two plausible default strategies: (1) the vector normal prefers slow motion in 3D whereas (2) the cyclopean average is based on slow motion in 2D. Predicting perceived motion directions for ambiguous line motion provides an opportunity to distinguish between these strategies of 3D motion processing. Our theoretical results suggest that velocity constraints and disparity from feature tracking are needed to solve the inverse problem of 3D motion perception. It seems plausible that motion and disparity input is processed in parallel and integrated late in the visual processing hierarchy.     

频差在立体视觉信息加工中的作用 Ⅱ、频差“克服”视差

双眼立体视觉机制至今不很清楚,存在不少争论,研究它具有深远意义。我们的兴趣是从心理物理、电生理和理论模型三方面开展工作,最终目标是试图搞清楚视觉立体信息处理类机制。本文主要利用心理物理学方法研究频差克差视差的问题。我们利用自己研制的一种多功能立体图形发生器产生左边为非均匀条纹、右边为均匀条纹的一系列具有不同视差的立体图对。在感知到“阶梯”后,用三种方法使得“阶梯”感变平:①改变均匀条纹的频率,②改变均匀条纹与被试的距离,③改变非均匀条纹与被试者的距离。从而实现了频差“克服”视差。我们的结果支持用频差来解释双眼倾斜现象,它使我们相信频差是视差在初级视系统中的表象形式。     

Subjective effects of displacement errors in electronically processed stereo-television pictures

Several aspects of the roles of object contours and of rivalry and suppression in binocular vision are considered in a TV engineering context. Three experiments, using 3D b/w stills, were conducted to explore subjective effects of irregular horizontal shifts at object contours (displacement errors), which are expected to be a typical picture impairment problem of future 3D TV multi-viewpoint systems. Performance and rating tasks on a wide range of impairment magnitudes and various picture parameters served to give a quantitative estimate of the influence of displacement errors on: (1) correctness of binocular depth perception; and (2) picture quality. Two experiments (constant vs. variable location of impairments over time) with vertical grating stimuli showed binocular depth perception to withstand levels of up to 90% misplaced contour elements in one part of the stereo pair. Quality assessments were much more critical. They depended both on the proportion of impaired pixels and on the maximum horizontal width of individual impairments. A corresponding stimulus model was found to be valid for pictures with natural content, too. Impairments were less annoying when visible by only one eye instead of both. A specific formulation is given of the influence of contrast and spatial frequency features on performance.     

频差在立体视觉信息加工中的作用 Ⅱ、频差“克服”视差

双眼立体视觉机制至今不很清楚,存在不少争论,研究它具有深远意义。我们的兴趣是从心理物理、电生理和理论模型三方面开展工作,最终目标是试图搞清楚视觉立体信息处理类机制。本文主要利用心理物理学方法研究频差克差视差的问题。我们利用自己研制的一种多功能立体图形发生器产生左边为非均匀条纹、右边为均匀条纹的一系列具有不同视差的立体图对。在感知到“阶梯”后,用三种方法使得“阶梯”感变平:①改变均匀条纹的频率,②改变均匀条纹与被试的距离,③改变非均匀条纹与被试者的距离。从而实现了频差“克服”视差。我们的结果支持用频差来解释双眼倾斜现象,它使我们相信频差是视差在初级视系统中的表象形式。     

Quality Index for Stereoscopic Images by Separately Evaluating Adding and Subtracting

The human visual system (HVS) plays an important role in stereo image quality perception. Therefore, it has aroused many people’s interest in how to take advantage of the knowledge of the visual perception in image quality assessment models. This paper proposes a full-reference metric for quality assessment of stereoscopic images based on the binocular difference channel and binocular summation channel. For a stereo pair, the binocular summation map and binocular difference map are computed first by adding and subtracting the left image and right image. Then the binocular summation is decoupled into two parts, namely additive impairments and detail losses. The quality of binocular summation is obtained as the adaptive combination of the quality of detail losses and additive impairments. The quality of binocular summation is computed by using the Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF) and weighted multi-scale (MS-SSIM). Finally, the quality of binocular summation and binocular difference is integrated into an overall quality index. The experimental results indicate that compared with existing metrics, the proposed metric is highly consistent with the subjective quality assessment and is a robust measure. The result have also indirectly proved hypothesis of the existence of binocular summation and binocular difference channels.     

A laminar cortical model of stereopsis and 3D surface perception: closure and da Vinci stereopsis

A laminar cortical model of stereopsis and 3D surface perception is developed and simulated. The model describes how monocular and binocular oriented filtering interact with later stages of 3D boundary formation and surface filling-in in the LGN and cortical areas V1, V2, and V4. It proposes how interactions between layers 4, 3B, and 2/3 in V1 and V2 contribute to stereopsis, and how binocular and monocular information combine to form 3D boundary and surface representations. The model includes two main new developments: (1) It clarifies how surface-to-boundary feedback from V2 thin stripes to pale stripes helps to explain data about stereopsis. This feedback has previously been used to explain data about 3D figure-ground perception. (2) It proposes that the binocular false match problem is subsumed under the Gestalt grouping problem. In particular, the disparity filter, which helps to solve the correspondence problem by eliminating false matches, is realized using inhibitory interneurons as part of the perceptual grouping process by horizontal connections in layer 2/3 of cortical area V2. The enhanced model explains all the psychophysical data previously simulated by Grossberg and Howe (2003), such as contrast variations of dichoptic masking and the correspondence problem, the effect of interocular contrast differences on stereoacuity, Panum's limiting case, the Venetian blind illusion, stereopsis with polarity-reversed stereograms, and da Vinci stereopsis. It also explains psychophysical data about perceptual closure and variations of da Vinci stereopsis that previous models cannot yet explain.     

Stochastic correlative firing for figure-ground segregation

Segregation of sensory inputs into separate objects is a central aspect of perception and arises in all sensory modalities. The figure-ground segregation problem requires identifying an object of interest in a complex scene, in many cases given binaural auditory or binocular visual observations. The computations required for visual and auditory figure-ground segregation share many common features and can be cast within a unified framework. Sensory perception can be viewed as a problem of optimizing information transmission. Here we suggest a stochastic correlative firing mechanism and an associative learning rule for figure-ground segregation in several classic sensory perception tasks, including the cocktail party problem in binaural hearing, binocular fusion of stereo images, and Gestalt grouping in motion perception.     

On the Contribution of Binocular Disparity to the Long-Term Memory for Natural Scenes

Binocular disparity is a fundamental dimension defining the input we receive from the visual world, along with luminance and chromaticity. In a memory task involving images of natural scenes we investigate whether binocular disparity enhances long-term visual memory. We found that forest images studied in the presence of disparity for relatively long times (7s) were remembered better as compared to 2D presentation. This enhancement was not evident for other categories of pictures, such as images containing cars and houses, which are mostly identified by the presence of distinctive artifacts rather than by their spatial layout. Evidence from a further experiment indicates that observers do not retain a trace of stereo presentation in long-term memory.     

The (In)Effectiveness of Simulated Blur for Depth Perception in Naturalistic Images

We examine depth perception in images of real scenes with naturalistic variation in pictorial depth cues, simulated dioptric blur and binocular disparity. Light field photographs of natural scenes were taken with a Lytro plenoptic camera that simultaneously captures images at up to 12 focal planes. When accommodation at any given plane was simulated, the corresponding defocus blur at other depth planes was extracted from the stack of focal plane images. Depth information from pictorial cues, relative blur and stereoscopic disparity was separately introduced into the images. In 2AFC tasks, observers were required to indicate which of two patches extracted from these images was farther. Depth discrimination sensitivity was highest when geometric and stereoscopic disparity cues were both present. Blur cues impaired sensitivity by reducing the contrast of geometric information at high spatial frequencies. While simulated generic blur may not assist depth perception, it remains possible that dioptric blur from the optics of an observer’s own eyes may be used to recover depth information on an individual basis. The implications of our findings for virtual reality rendering technology are discussed.     

Stereoscopic Vision in the Absence of the Lateral Occipital Cortex

Both dorsal and ventral cortical visual streams contain neurons sensitive to binocular disparities, but the two streams may underlie different aspects of stereoscopic vision. Here we investigate stereopsis in the neurological patient D.F., whose ventral stream, specifically lateral occipital cortex, has been damaged bilaterally, causing profound visual form agnosia. Despite her severe damage to cortical visual areas, we report that DF''s stereo vision is strikingly unimpaired. She is better than many control observers at using binocular disparity to judge whether an isolated object appears near or far, and to resolve ambiguous structure-from-motion. DF is, however, poor at using relative disparity between features at different locations across the visual field. This may stem from a difficulty in identifying the surface boundaries where relative disparity is available. We suggest that the ventral processing stream may play a critical role in enabling healthy observers to extract fine depth information from relative disparities within one surface or between surfaces located in different parts of the visual field.     

Blur and disparity are complementary cues to depth

Estimating depth from binocular disparity is extremely precise, and the cue does not depend on statistical regularities in the environment. Thus, disparity is commonly regarded as the best visual cue for determining 3D layout. But depth from disparity is only precise near where one is looking; it is quite imprecise elsewhere. Away from fixation, vision resorts to using other depth cues-e.g., linear perspective, familiar size, aerial perspective. But those cues depend on statistical regularities in the environment and are therefore not always reliable. Depth from defocus blur relies on fewer assumptions and has the same geometric constraints as disparity but different physiological constraints. Blur could in principle fill in the parts of visual space where disparity is imprecise. We tested this possibility with a depth-discrimination experiment. Disparity was more precise near fixation and blur was indeed more precise away from fixation. When both cues were available, observers relied on the more informative one. Blur appears to play an important, previously unrecognized role in depth perception. Our findings lead to a new hypothesis about the evolution of slit-shaped pupils and have implications for the design and implementation of stereo 3D displays.     

Shading Beats Binocular Disparity in Depth from Luminance Gradients: Evidence against a Maximum Likelihood Principle for Cue Combination

Perceived depth is conveyed by multiple cues, including binocular disparity and luminance shading. Depth perception from luminance shading information depends on the perceptual assumption for the incident light, which has been shown to default to a diffuse illumination assumption. We focus on the case of sinusoidally corrugated surfaces to ask how shading and disparity cues combine defined by the joint luminance gradients and intrinsic disparity modulation that would occur in viewing the physical corrugation of a uniform surface under diffuse illumination. Such surfaces were simulated with a sinusoidal luminance modulation (0.26 or 1.8 cy/deg, contrast 20%-80%) modulated either in-phase or in opposite phase with a sinusoidal disparity of the same corrugation frequency, with disparity amplitudes ranging from 0’-20’. The observers’ task was to adjust the binocular disparity of a comparison random-dot stereogram surface to match the perceived depth of the joint luminance/disparity-modulated corrugation target. Regardless of target spatial frequency, the perceived target depth increased with the luminance contrast and depended on luminance phase but was largely unaffected by the luminance disparity modulation. These results validate the idea that human observers can use the diffuse illumination assumption to perceive depth from luminance gradients alone without making an assumption of light direction. For depth judgments with combined cues, the observers gave much greater weighting to the luminance shading than to the disparity modulation of the targets. The results were not well-fit by a Bayesian cue-combination model weighted in proportion to the variance of the measurements for each cue in isolation. Instead, they suggest that the visual system uses disjunctive mechanisms to process these two types of information rather than combining them according to their likelihood ratios.     

Cortical processing and perceived timing

As of yet, it is unclear how we determine relative perceived timing. One controversial suggestion is that timing perception might be related to when analyses are completed in the cortex of the brain. An alternate proposal suggests that perceived timing is instead related to the point in time at which cortical analyses commence. Accordingly, timing illusions should not occur owing to cortical analyses, but they could occur if there were differential delays between signals reaching cortex. Resolution of this controversy therefore requires that the contributions of cortical processing be isolated from the influence of subcortical activity. Here, we have done this by using binocular disparity changes, which are known to be detected via analyses that originate in cortex. We find that observers require longer stimulus exposures to detect small, relative to larger, disparity changes; observers are slower to react to smaller disparity changes and observers misperceive smaller disparity changes as being perceptually delayed. Interestingly, disparity magnitude influenced perceived timing more dramatically than it did stimulus change detection. Our data therefore suggest that perceived timing is both influenced by cortical processing and is shaped by sensory analyses subsequent to those that are minimally necessary for stimulus change perception.     

Binocular cues and the control of prehension

The present study was designed to assess the importance of binocular information (i.e. binocular disparity and angle of convergence) in the control of prehension. Previous studies which have addressed this question have typically used the same experimental manipulation: comparing prehensile movements executed either under binocular conditions to those executed when one eye was occluded (monocular). However this may not be the correct comparison as in addition to depriving the subject of binocular depth cues. it also deprives the subject of any visual information in one eye. Therefore we determined the prehensile performance when the subject viewed the target object and scene with either (i) two different views (binocular), (ii) two identical views (bi-ocular), or (iii) one view only (monocular). Overall, the qualitative and quantitative performance in the bi-ocular and monocular control conditions was very similar on all the main measures (and different from the performance in the binocular condition). We conclude that the deficits in performance observed found for 'monocular' reaches should be attributed to the lack of local depth information specified by the binocular cues. In addition we speculate that convergence angle and binocular disparity, although involved in both the pre-movement and movement-execution phases of the reach, the cues may be weighted differently in both phases of a prehension movement depending on the behavioural strategy involved.     

Depth Perception Not Found in Human Observers for Static or Dynamic Anti-Correlated Random Dot Stereograms

One of the greatest challenges in visual neuroscience is that of linking neural activity with perceptual experience. In the case of binocular depth perception, important insights have been achieved through comparing neural responses and the perception of depth, for carefully selected stimuli. One of the most important types of stimulus that has been used here is the anti-correlated random dot stereogram (ACRDS). In these stimuli, the contrast polarity of one half of a stereoscopic image is reversed. While neurons in cortical area V1 respond reliably to the binocular disparities in ACRDS, they do not create a sensation of depth. This discrepancy has been used to argue that depth perception must rely on neural activity elsewhere in the brain. Currently, the psychophysical results on which this argument rests are not clear-cut. While it is generally assumed that ACRDS do not support the perception of depth, some studies have reported that some people, some of the time, perceive depth in some types of these stimuli. Given the importance of these results for understanding the neural correlates of stereopsis, we studied depth perception in ACRDS using a large number of observers, in order to provide an unambiguous conclusion about the extent to which these stimuli support the perception of depth. We presented observers with random dot stereograms in which correlated dots were presented in a surrounding annulus and correlated or anti-correlated dots were presented in a central circular region. While observers could reliably report the depth of the central region for correlated stimuli, we found no evidence for depth perception in static or dynamic anti-correlated stimuli. Confidence ratings for stereoscopic perception were uniformly low for anti-correlated stimuli, but showed normal variation with disparity for correlated stimuli. These results establish that the inability of observers to perceive depth in ACRDS is a robust phenomenon.