Table Of ContentPERCEIVING IN DEPTH
OXFORD PSYCHOLOGY SERIES
1. Th e Neuropsychology of Anxiety 18. Perceptual and Associative Learning 34. Looking Down on Human Intelligence
J. A. Gray G. Hall I. J. Deary
2. Elements of Episodic Memory 19. Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge 35. From Conditioning to Conscious
E. Tulving A. S. Reber Recollection
H. Eichenbaum and N. J. Cohen
3. Conditioning and Associative Learning 20. Neuromotor Mechanisms in Human
N. J. Mackintosh Communication 36. Understanding Figurative Language
D. Kimura S. Glucksberg
4. Visual Masking
B. G. Breitmeyer 21. Th e Frontal Lobes and Voluntary Action 3 7. Active Vision
R. Passingham J. M. Findlay and I. D. Gilchrist
5. Th e Musical Mind
J. A. Sloboda 22. Classifi cation and Cognition 38. Th e Science of False Memory
W. K. Estes C. J. Brainerd and V. F. Reyna
6. Elements of Psychophysical Th eory
J.-C. Falmagne 23. Vowel Perception and Production 39. Th e Case for Mental Imagery
B. S. Rosner and J. B. Pickering S. M. Kosslyn, W. L. Th ompson, and G. Ganis
7. Animal Intelligence
L. Weiskrantz 24. Visual Stress 40. Seeing Black and White
A. Wilkins A. Gilchrist
8. Response Times
R. D. Luce 25. Electrophysiology of Mind 41. Visual Masking, 2e
Edited by M. D. Rugg and M. G. H. Coles B. Breitmeyer and H. Öğmen
9. Mental Representations
A. Paivio 26. Attention and Memory 42. Motor Cognition
N. Cowan M. Jeannerod
10. Memory, Imprinting, and the Brain
G. Horn 27. Th e Visual Brain in Action 43. Th e Visual Brain in Action
A. D. Milner and M. A. Goodale A. D. Milner and M. A. Goodale
11. Working Memory
A. Baddeley 28. Perceptual Consequences of Cochlear 44. Th e Continuity of Mind
Damage M. Spivey
12. Blindsight
B. C. J. Moore
L. Weiskrantz 45. Working Memory, Th ought, and Action
29. Perceiving in Depth, Vols. 1, 2, and 3 A. Baddeley
13. Profi le Analysis
I. P. Howard with B. J. Rogers
D. M. Green 46. What Is Special about the Human Brain?
30. Th e Measurement of Sensation R. Passingham
14. Spatial Vision
D. Laming
R. L. DeValois and K. K. DeValois 47. Visual Refl ections
31. Conditioned Taste Aversion M. McCloskey
15. Th e Neural and Behavioural Organization
J. Bures, F. Bermúdez-Rattoni, and
of Goal-Directed Movements 48. Principles of Visual Attention
T. Yamamoto
M. Jeannerod C. Bundesen and T. Habekost
32. Th e Developing Visual Brain
16. Visual Pattern Analyzers 49. Major Issues in Cognitive Aging
J. Atkinson
N. V. S. Graham T. A. Salthouse
33. Th e Neuropsychology of Anxiety, 2e
17. Cognitive Foundations of Musical Pitch
J. A. Gray and N. McNaughton
C. L. Krumhansl
PERCEIVING IN DEPTH
VOLUME 1 BASIC MECHANISMS
Ian P. Howard
CENTRE FOR VISION RESEARCH
YORK UNIVERSITY
TORONTO
1
1
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Copyright © 2012 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
____________________________________________
A copy of this book’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on fi le
with the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-0-19-976414-3
____________________________________________
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
VOLUME 1 22. Stereopsis and perceptual organization 470
BASIC MECHANISMS 23. Th e Pulfrich eff ect 515
24. Stereoscopic techniques and applications 538
1. Introduction 1
2. Historical background 9
References 564
3. Psychophysics and analysis 92
Index of cited journals 621
4. Sensory coding 128
P ortrait index 624
5. Physiology of the visual system 206
Subject index 625
6. Development of the visual system 303
7. Development of perceptual functions 368
8. Eff ects of visual deprivation 391
VOLUME 3
9. Image formation and accommodation 435
OTHER MECHANISMS OF DEPTH
10. Vergence eye movements 475
PERCEPTION
25. Depth from accommodation and vergence 1
References 549
26. Depth from perspective 15
Index of cited journals 650
27. Depth from interposition and shading 63
P ortrait index 653
28. Depth from motion parallax 84
Subject index 654
29. Constancies in visual depth perception 122
3 0. Interactions between visual depth cues 147
VOLUME 2 31. Seeing motion-in-depth 179
STEREOSCOPIC VISION 32. Pathology of visual depth perception 216
33. Visual depth perception in the
11. Physiology of disparity detection 1
animal kingdom 233
12. Binocular fusion and rivalry 51
34. Reaching and moving in 3-D space 260
13. Binocular summation, masking, and transfer 107
35. Auditory distance perception 277
14. Binocular correspondence and the horopter 148
36. Electrolocation and thermal senses 309
15. Linking binocular images 182
37. Animal navigation 318
16. Cyclopean vision 210
38. Final word 334
17. Stimulus tokens for stereopsis 249
18. Stereoscopic acuity 287
References 336
19. Types of binocular disparity 363
Index of cited journals 382
20. Binocular disparity and depth perception 385
P ortrait index 385
21. Depth contrast 433
Subject index 386
v
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1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Scope of the book 1 1.1.3 Volume 3 4
1.1.1 Volume 1 1 1.2 Basic terms 6
1.1.2 Volume 2 3 1.3 Indexes and references 7
1.1 SCOPE OF THE BOOK infrared sense organs, and magnetic sense organs were dis-
covered in the 20th century.
Th ese three volumes contain a survey of knowledge about Until the 17th century, the word “optics” meant per-
the mechanisms that enable humans and animals to per- taining to vision. Th e study of binocular vision and space
ceive the three-dimensional structure of the world and perception in general was fostered by those in the
use sensory information to guide their actions in three- Perspectivist tradition , which stressed the geometrical
dimensional space. Machine vision and computational aspects of vision. Th e tradition started with Euclid in the
models are mentioned only where they contribute to an 3rd century BC and progressed through Ptolemy in the 2nd
understanding of the living system. century AD; Alhazen in the 10th century; Roger Bacon,
Our 1995 book, (B inocular Vision and Stereopsis , by I. P. John Peckham, and Vitello in the 13th century; and
Howard and B. J. Rogers) dealt only with binocular vision. Aguilonius, Kepler, and Newton in the 17th century. Th ey
In 2002 we published Seeing in Depth , which dealt with all wrote books with titles containing either the word
all visual cues to depth. Th e scope of the present three “optics” or the word “perspectiva.” Th e books formed a
volumes has been broadened to include distance perception continuous tradition.
by senses other than vision. Table 1.1 lists the sources of Some of these works have been translated into English
information that animals use to detect the distances of only recently. Most visual scientists are unaware of this
objects or a distance traveled. Th ere are also new chapters ancient Perspectivist tradition, which culminated in
on how humans and animals reach, walk, and navigate in Kepler’s discovery of the laws of image formation in 1604,
three-dimensional space. Newton’s book of O ptics in 1670 , and projective geometry.
Th e topics discussed in S eeing in Depth have been exten- Many of the early discoveries of the Perspectivists, having to
sively revised and brought up to date with the addition of do with visual perception, were forgotten aft er the 17th
3,000 more references and hundreds of new fi gures. century and were rediscovered in the 19th and 20th centu-
ries, without reference to earlier sources.
No account of the history of sensory science can ignore
1.1.1 VOLUME 1
the fact that until modern times, medicine, science, and visual
Th e fi rst volume provides a historical background and deals science in particular, were associated with mysticism and reli-
with basic coding processes, methods of investigation, and gious dogma. In Europe before the 18th century, light was
basic visual mechanisms. identifi ed with divine illumination descending from ethereal
It starts with a review of the history of our knowledge of regions down to the earthy sphere of mortal existence.
the visual system, from 500 BC to the early 20th century. Perception and thought were identifi ed with the soul, and
Th e study of visual mechanisms of depth perception has a philosophers were preoccupied with questions concerning
long history. It began in ancient Greece. Th e study of audi- the nature of the immortal soul. Science and medicine broke
tory mechanisms of depth perception, including echoloca- free from these constraints on rational thought and empirical
tion, and the lateral-line system, did not start until the early investigation in the 18th century, although mystical ideas still
20th century. Th e otolith organs of the vestibular system, fl ourish outside the mainstream of science.
and sense organs responsible for kinesthesia were discov- Devices that create imaginary visual worlds have always
ered in the second half of the 19th century. Electrolocation, fascinated people. Th e ancients had to rely on masks,
1
Table 1.1. SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR THE DETECTION OF DEPTH
Visual information
Monocular Binocular
Static Dynamic
Perspective Interposition Lighting Aerial Focussing Optic flow Vergence Disparity
Linear Occlusion Shading Optical haze Image blur Motion parallax Static Occlusion disparity
Texture Transparency Shadow Mist Accommodation Accretion/deletion Changing Position disparity
Non-visual information
Self movement Audition Electric fields Heat Geomagnetism Olfaction
Monaural Passive electrolocation
Active Passive
Binaural Active electrolocation
Kinesthesis Touch
Echo location
Motor efference Otolith organs
Lateral line
puppets, and theater. Peepshow boxes became popular in processed in complex ways, so that they may be acted on
the 15th century. In the 16th century, development of the and described, not merely detected or reconstructed.
camera obscura provided artists with a method for drawing Chapter 4 is an introduction to general principles of sen-
in perspective. It developed into display systems that pro- sory coding, starting with detection and going on to dis-
duced panoramic images of the surroundings. In the 17th crimination, identifi cation, and description.
century the shadow theater was imported into Europe from Over one million axons from each eye feed into the
the East and the magic lantern was invented. During the human visual cortex, more than from all the other sense
18th and 19th centuries most cities in Europe and America organs combined. Th e processing of these inputs involves
had panoramas, which were huge painted scenes displayed almost every part of the cerebral cortex, which contains bil-
round the interior of large arenas. Aft er Wheatstone lions of neurons. Vision is therefore the main gateway to
invented the stereoscope in 1832, domestic stereoscopes understanding the central nervous system. Chapter 5 is a
became all the rage. Panoramas and stereoscopes were review of the general physiology of the visual system, with
eclipsed by the advent of the cinema. We now have stereo- an emphasis on those mechanisms related to depth percep-
scopic movies and virtual reality displays with which the tion. Th e physiology of other relevant sensory systems is
viewer can interact. Th ese display systems are reviewed in presented in later chapters.
Chapter 2. Th e human visual system is the most complex system
Perhaps synthetic worlds will become so real and the known. How did such a system evolve? Chapter 6 starts
real world will become so contrived and managed that the with a discussion of how eyes evolved independently in sev-
two will be indistinguishable. eral phyla, from simple eyespots to complex lens eyes and
Many psychophysical and analytic procedures have been compound eyes.
used to investigate mechanisms of depth perception. Chapter 6 continues with an account of how the visual
Chapter 3 provides a general introduction to these proce- system develops. As the sense organs and central nervous
dures. Key references are provided to more detailed system grow, billions of cells form appropriate synaptic con-
treatments. nections, sometimes as many as 20,000 on one cell. How do
Perception must start with the detection of relevant fea- the multitudes of growing nerve cells fi nd their proper des-
tures of the environment. All sensory systems consist of sen- tinations and form complex functioning networks? Our
sory cells distributed over a membrane. A stereoscopic understanding of these processes has progressed rapidly in
movie camera can detect all visible features of a scene. the last 50 years with the advent of high-resolution micro-
Similarly, a microphone can detect all the sounds that a scopes and staining techniques that allow one to observe
human ear can detect. In theory, a movie created by infor- living neurons and dendritic processes. Th is is the most rap-
mation picked up by a movie camera and microphone can idly developing fi eld in the whole of visual science. With
be indistinguishable from the real scene. But cameras and these new procedures we can expect major developments in
microphones do not perceive, they simply detect and recon- our understanding of the growth of the visual system. Th e
struct stimuli. Perception represents the ability to respond complexity of the visual system and of the processes respon-
diff erentially to stimuli, and to discriminate, identify, sible for its growth are overwhelming. Chapter 6 provides
and describe them. Th ese abilities require that stimuli be only a general overview of the subject.
2 • BASIC MECHANISMS
Th e study of the development of the visual system prom- the visual axes so as to bring the two images of an object of
ises to be the most fruitful approach to understanding the interest onto corresponding positions on the retinas.
development of the whole central nervous system. Th is is
because, in the visual system, one can most easily see rela-
1.1.2 VOLUME 2
tionships between genetic and experiential factors. Even
before the eyes open, activity arising in the eyes aff ects the Th e second volume is devoted to stereoscopic vision in cats
growth of cell connections in the growing visual cortex. Th e and primates, including humans. Stereoscopic vision is
study of the eff ects of stimuli arising in the two eyes has defi ned as the detection of the 3-D structure of stimuli that
been particularly rewarding in young animals just aft er their relies on diff erences between the images in the two eyes.
eyes have opened. In the fi rst place, the routing of growing Th ese diff erences are detected by specialized disparity
axons at the optic chiasm provides a model system for inves- detectors, which occur at various levels of the central
tigating mechanisms of axonal guidance. Secondly, more nervous system. Th e physiology of disparity detectors is
than any other branch of developmental neuroscience, the discussed in Chapter 11.
study of the development of binocular cells in the visual Th e fact that inputs from corresponding regions in the
cortex has revealed how genetic and experiential factors two eyes combine in the visual cortex gives rise to several
interact. interesting problems. Signals from the two eyes that arise
Although every cell in the body contains the same chro- from the same object must be distinguished from signals
mosomes, diff erent genes are activated in diff erent types of that arise from spurious superimposition of nonmatching
cells and at diff erent times during development. Th e mech- stimuli. Matching signals falling on neighboring points on
anisms that control specifi c activation of genes are known as the two retinas project to the same region in the visual
epigenesis. It has recently been discovered that visual expe- cortex and fuse to create the impression of one image.
rience in early life activates genes that control development Nonmatching images falling on the same region in the two
of the visual system. Sensory experience controls gene eyes rival for access to the visual system. Chapter 12 deals
expression even in the adult animal, in the processes respon- with these issues.
sible for learning. Under certain circumstances, a stimulus seen by both
Th e study of the development of the structure and func- eyes is perceived more readily and appears brighter than
tion of the visual system is complemented by behavioral and monocular images. Under other circumstances, superim-
psychophysical investigations of the developing animal. posed, neighboring, or successively presented binocular
Th ese investigations are reviewed in Chapter 7, with an images engage in mutual suppression. Chapter 13 deals
emphasis on the development of depth perception. Some with these phenomena. It also deals with interocular trans-
functions, such as refl ex eye movements, develop under the fer. A visual phenomenon shows interocular transfer when
guidance of genetic factors with little infl uence from visual an aft ereff ect generated by presenting a stimulus to one eye
activity. Other functions, such as stereoscopic vision, shows when only the other eye is open. Th e study of interoc-
develop only when certain types of visual activity occur in ular transfer reveals how inputs from the two eyes are com-
certain critical time periods. All sensory functions become bined and, to some extent, where they are combined.
fi nely tuned by experience and complex relationships Chapter 14 deals with the geometry of binocular space.
between them build over many years and even over the It starts by defi ning coordinate systems used to specify the
whole lifetime. positions of images in each eye and the positions of points
Much can be learned about the visual system by in space with respect to both eyes. In theory, one can deter-
studying the consequences of early deprivation of sight in mine the locus of points in space that project images to cor-
one or both eyes. Monocular deprivation within a critical responding locations in the two retinas. Th is locus is known
period aft er birth severely disrupts vision in the deprived as the horopter. Th e horopter can also be derived empiri-
eye — a condition known as amblyopia. It also disrupts cally by measuring which points appear fused or aligned.
binocular vision and stereopsis. Th is topic has attracted a Th e issues are quite complex.
lot of attention because of the clinical importance of Similar images in the two eyes that are suffi ciently
amblyopia. Also, the behavioral and physiological conse- near each other are combined in the primary visual cortex
quences of experimentally induced monocular deprivation and passed on for processing to higher levels. Th e problem
in animals have revealed much about the way the visual is to determine the stimulus features used by the visual
system develops and functions. Th ese issues are reviewed in system to relate images in one retina with those in a corre-
Chapter 8. sponding region of the other retina. Th ese features could
Chapters 9 and 10 are concerned with oculomotor include proximity, or similarity of contrast, shape, color, or
mechanisms associated with the perception of depth. When motion. One can also ask whether the visual system per-
we attend to an object, the lenses of the eyes automatically forms image matching only locally or both locally and glob-
accommodate to the correct distance. At the same time, the ally over wide areas. Th ese questions are discussed in
eyes converge horizontally, vertically, and by rotation about Chapter 15.
INTRODUCTION • 3
