Vergence Micromovements and Depth Perception

A new approach in stereo vision is proposed in which 3D depth information is recovered using continuous vergence angle control with simultaneous local correspondence response. This technique relates elements with the same relative position in the left and right images for a continuous sequence of vergence angles. The approach considers the extremely fine vergence movements (micromovements) about a given fixation point within the depth of field boundaries. It allows the recovery of 3D depth information given the knowledge of the geometry of the system and a sequence of pairs [αi, Ci], where αi is the i th vergence angle and Ci is the i th matrix of correspondence responses. Due to its local operation characteristics, the resulting algorithms are implemented in a modular hardware scheme using transputers. Unlike currently used algorithms, there is no need to compute depth from disparity values; at the cost of the acquisition of a sequence of images during the micromovements. Experimental results from physiology and psychophysics suggest that the approach is biologically plausible. Therefore, the approach proposes a functional correlation between the vergence micromovements, depth perception, stereo acuity and stereo fusion.