The perception of stereoscopic transparency

The research in the present article was designed to investigate the phenomenon of stereoscopic transparency, in which overlapping surfaces are perceived simultaneously at different depths in the same visual direction. Four experiments are reported that examined observers’ abilities to achieve this phenomenon over a wide range of stimulus conditions. The results indicate that (1) the perceptual segregation of overlapping transparent surfaces is significantly more difficult than are comparable judgments for opaque surfaces; (2) the perception of transparency is impaired by increased depth differences between the overlapping surfaces or by increased element density; and (3) the effect is facilitated when the overlapping depth planes are distinguished by color, but not when they are distinguished by element orientation. The theoretical significance of these results is considered within the context of current competitive/cooperative models of stereo matching.

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