Moving from spatially segregated to transparent motion: A modelling approach

Motion transparency, in which patterns of moving elements group together to give the impression of lacy overlapping surfaces, provides an important challenge to models of motion perception. It has been suggested that we perceive transparent motion when the shape of the velocity histogram of the stimulus is bimodal. To investigate this further, random-dot kinematogram motion sequences were created to simulate segregated (perceptually spatially separated) and transparent (perceptually overlapping) motion. The motion sequences were analysed using the multi-channel gradient model (McGM) to obtain the speed and direction at every pixel of each frame of the motion sequences. The velocity histograms obtained were found to be quantitatively similar and all were bimodal. However, the spatial and temporal properties of the velocity field differed between segregated and transparent stimuli. Transparent stimuli produced patches of rightward and leftward motion that varied in location over time. This demonstrates that we can successfully differentiate between these two types of motion on the basis of the time varying local velocity field. However, the percept of motion transparency cannot be based simply on the presence of a bimodal velocity histogram.