Accommodation is a muscular cue, the lens of the eye changes shape when focused on an object, thickening for nearby objects and flattening for distant objects. Accommodation is known as an oculomotor. 7
Convergence is an oculomotor cue based on distance, it is the process by which the eyes point more and more inward as an object gets closer. 8. By taking note of the angle of convergence, the brain provides us with depth information over distances from about 6 to 20 feet (Hochberg, 1971). Convergence is one of two binocular cues of visual depth perception, in which kinaesthetic information on the amount of ocular convergence identifies the distance of objects being fixated. 9
Monocular Cues on the other hand involve those cues that exist for a single eye. This is one of the major categories for depth perception, as there are several different monocular cues that help in depth perception. An important monocular cue for depth is provided by motion. As the world moves, whether that movement is caused by the perceiver or by his surrounding environment, objects in the environment move in distinct, predictable patterns. This concept is known as the motion parallax. 10
When an observer moves, the apparent relative motion of several stationary objects against a background gives hints about their relative distance. This effect can be seen clearly when driving in a car close by things pass quickly, while far off objects appear still. Some animals that lack binocular vision due to wide placement of the eyes employ parallax more explicitly than humans for depth cueing (e.g. some types of birds, which bob their heads to achieve motion parallax, and squirrels, which move in lines orthogonal to an object of interest to do the same).
There are various monocular cues to depth, these are Linear perspective, Texture, Occlusion, Light and shadow, Familiar size, and Motion parallax.
Linear perspective is a cue to depth based on the convergence of parallel lines in two-dimensional representations e.g. railway tacks. 11. The lines appear to converge as the move away into the distance. (Gross 2005)
Texture is a cue to depth based on a nearer surface having an increased texture density e.g.
Textured surfaces, such as pebbles on a beach, or waves on the sea, look rougher closer up than from a distance. Texture gradient is used as a clue to distance. (Eysenck 2004)
Occlusion is a cue to depth based on a closer object hiding part of a more distant one. This does not provide information about an objects distance from us, instead it indicates relative depth, we know the object that is partially covered is farther away than another object, but we don’t know how much farther away it is. Paul signac’s painting, Place des Lices, St. Tropez (1893) makes extensive use of occlusion showing how difficult it is to tell which branches in the picture are in front and which in back. (Goldtein 1999) 12
Light and shadow show a pattern of light and dark on and around an object. 3-D objects produce variations in light and shade. (Gross 2005). Highlights and shadows can provide information about an object's dimensions and depth. Because our visual system assumes the light comes from above, a totally different perception is obtained if the image is viewed upside down. (Eysenck 2004)
Familiar size shows a collection of different sized objects, smaller ones are usually seen as more distant, especially if they’re known to have a constant size. (Gross 2005). As the car drives away, the retinal image becomes smaller and smaller. We interpret this as the car getting further and further away. This is referred to as size constancy. A retinal image of a small car is also interpreted as a distant car. (Eysenck 2004)
Motion parallax is a cue to depth based on the tendency of images of closer objects to move faster than images of more distant objects. Helmholtz (1866/1911) described how, as we walk along, nearby objects appear to glide rapidly past us, but more distant objects appear to move more slowly e.g. trees seen from a moving train window flash by when close to the track.
We have considered a range of depth cues monocular, binocular, and oculomotor. Monocular cues can be used with one eye or both eyes, whereas binocular cues require both eyes to be used together. Binocular cues are only effective at close range, as are oculomotor cues. However, we do not see multiple copies of the world. More than one depth cue is available to us at the same time, the cues must be combined in some way. It makes sense to combine information from depth cues, as most cues can sometimes provide inaccurate information and so relying on only one may lead to error. (Eysenck 2004)
It is now important to look at visual illusions, to do this we must first understand the concept ‘perception’. Perception refers to the understanding of what we take in through our senses, in terms of illusions this means our eyes. Illusions take place because our brain is trying to understand what we see and make sense of the world around us. Illusions trick our brain into seeing things, which may or may not be genuine.13. We can now look at examples of what happens when depth perception is ineffective. Although perception is usually reliable, our perceptions sometimes misrepresent the world. We experience an illusion when our perception of an object doesn’t match its true physical characteristics. Information collected by the eye is processed by the brain to give a percept that does not tally with a physical capacity of the stimulus cause. There are two main types of illusion - physiological illusions these are the effects on the eyes and brain of too much stimulation of a specific type - brightness, tilt, color, movement, and cognitive illusions where the eye and brain make unconscious assumptions. 14
Visual illusions are often present in nature. For instance, have you ever placed a stick in water and wondered why the part in the water appeared to be bent, or perhaps you’ve remembered a time when you watched a car's tires spinning and they appeared to spin in the opposite direction than the car was moving. These are just a few examples of illusions that occur in the world around us. 15
Physiological illusions, such as the afterimages following bright lights or adapting stimuli (a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment) of exceptionally longer flashing patterns, are supposed to be the effects on the eyes or brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type - brightness, tilt, color, movement, etc. The theory is that stimuli have individual devoted neural paths in the early stages of visual processing, and that repetitive stimulation of only one or a few channels causes a physiological imbalance that changes perception. 16
The Hermann grid illusion and Mach bands are two illusions that are best explained using a biological approach. Lateral inhibition, where in the receptive field of the retina light and dark receptors compete with one another to become active, it has been used to explain why we see bands of increased brightness at the edge of a color difference when viewing Mach bands. Once a receptor is active it inhibits neighboring receptors. This inhibition creates contrast, highlighting edges. In the Hermann grid illusion the grey spots appear, at the intersection because of the inhibitory response which occurs as a result of the increased dark surround. Lateral inhibition has also been used to explain the Hermann grid illusion, but this has been disproved. 16
It is assumed that cognitive images arise by interaction with assumptions about the world, leading to "unconscious inferences", an idea first suggested in the 19th century by Hermann Helmholtz. Cognitive illusions are commonly divided into ambiguous illusions, distorting illusions, paradox illusions, or fiction illusions.16
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Ambiguous illusions are pictures or objects that elicit a perceptual 'switch' between the alternative interpretations. The Rubin vase is a well known example.16
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Distorting illusions are characterized by distortions of size, length, or curvature. A famous example Müller-Lyer illusion. The top horizontal line appears to be shorter than the bottom horizontal line, even though they are both exactly the same length. 16
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Paradox illusions are generated by objects that look ordinary at first, but after closer inspection it’s obvious they cannot exist in reality, such as the Penrose triangle or impossible staircases, for example, in M. C. Escher's Ascending and Descending and Waterfall. The triangle is an illusion dependent on a cognitive misunderstanding that adjacent edges must join. 16
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Fictional illusions are defined as the perception of objects that are genuinely not there, to all but a single observer, such as those induced by schizophrenia or a hallucinogen, known as hallucinations. Fictions help explain how we perceive that objects possess specific shapes, in the overlap of the triangle and disc illusion, there is no white triangle physically present, but we perceive the shape of a white triangle, which appears to be opaque and lighter than the background. 16
Illusions can be based on an individual's ability to see in three dimensions even though the image hitting the retina is only two dimensional. The Ponzo illusion is an example of an illusion which uses monocular cues of depth perception to fool the eye.16
In the Ponzo illusion the converging parallel lines tell the brain that the image higher in the visual field is further away therefore the brain see’s the image as larger, however the two images hitting the retina are the same size. The Optical illusion seen in a false perspective also exploits assumptions based on monocular cues of depth perception. The M. C. Escher painting Waterfall exploits rules of depth and proximity and our understanding of the physical world to create an illusion.16
Like depth perception, motion perception is responsible for a number of sensory illusions. Film animation is based on the illusion that the brain perceives a series of slightly varied images produced in rapid succession as a moving picture. When moving, as we would be while riding in a vehicle, steady surrounding objects may appear to move. We may also perceive a large object, like an airplane, to move more slowly, than smaller objects, like a car, although the larger object is actually moving faster. The Phi phenomenon is another example of how the brain perceives motion, which is most often created by blinking lights in close succession.16
In conclusion this essay has described the contribution made to a general understanding of depth perception by an analysis of the binocular and monocular cue approach, and visual illusions. Brief examples have been demonstrated and discussed in order to explain depth perception. The cue approach to depth perception focuses on identifying information in the retinal image that is correlated with depth in the scene. E.g. if one object partially covers another object, as the blue circle does the red shown below, the object that is partially covered must be at a greater distance than the object that is covering it. This situation, which is called occlusion, is a signal, or cue, that one object is in front of another. According to the cue theory, we learn the connection between this cue and depth through our previous experince with the environment. After this learning has occurred, the association between particular cues and depth becomes automatic, and when these depth cues are present, we experience the world in three dimensions. A number of different types of cues have been identified that signal depth in the scene as discussed in Binocular and Monocular cues. These cue’s show how depth perception is effective and does take place, by describing factualy how our eyes receive images and how they are reflected on the brain from the eyes using different methods through binocular and monocular cue approaches to discribe its impact on depth perception.
In contrast studying visual illusions can help us to understand principles of depth perception. By thinking of an illusion as a phenomenon it allows us to become knowingly aware of the complicated procedure that is always unfolding behind the scenes. The visual world that we perceive is always being created by an active mind continuously searching for patterns and explanations out of the information it is receiving. 17 Illusions demonstrate the effects of depth perception going wrong, and what happens when images are not clear and instead ambiguous.
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