Modeling the Combination of Motion, Stereo, and Vergence Angle Cues to Visual Depth

Three models of visual cue combination were simulated: a weak fusion model, a modified weak model, and a strong model. Their relative strengths and weaknesses are evaluated on the basis of their performances on the tasks of judging the depth and shape of an ellipse. The models differ in the amount of interaction that they permit among the cues of stereo, motion, and vergence angle. Results suggest that the constrained nonlinear interaction of the modified weak model allows better performance than either the linear interaction of the weak model or the unconstrained nonlinear interaction of the strong model. Further examination of the modified weak model revealed that its weighting of motion and stereo cues was dependent on the task, the viewing distance, and, to a lesser degree, the noise model. Although the dependencies were sensible from a computational viewpoint, they were sometimes inconsistent with psychophysical experimental data. In a second set of experiments, the modified weak model was given contradictory motion and stereo information. One cue was informative in the sense that it indicated an ellipse, while the other cue indicated a flat surface. The modified weak model rapidly reweighted its use of stereo and motion cues as a function of each cue's informativeness. Overall, the simulation results suggest that relative to the weak and strong models, the modified weak fusion model is a good candidate model of the combination of motion, stereo, and vergence angle cues, although the results also highlight areas in which this model needs modification or further elaboration.

[1]  B. Rogers,et al.  Similarities between motion parallax and stereopsis in human depth perception , 1982, Vision Research.

[2]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Object vision and spatial vision: two cortical pathways , 1983, Trends in Neurosciences.

[3]  Geoffrey E. Hinton,et al.  Learning internal representations by error propagation , 1986 .

[4]  G. Sperling,et al.  Tradeoffs between stereopsis and proximity luminance covariance as determinants of perceived 3D structure , 1986, Vision Research.

[5]  Geoffrey E. Hinton,et al.  A general framework for parallel distributed processing , 1986 .

[6]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Parallel distributed processing: explorations in the microstructure of cognition, vol. 1: foundations , 1986 .

[7]  H H Bülthoff,et al.  Integration of depth modules: stereo and shading. , 1988, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[8]  M. Braunstein,et al.  The observer-relative velocity field as the basis for effective motion parallax. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[9]  J. Cutting,et al.  Minimodularity and the perception of layout. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[10]  M Nawrot,et al.  Neural integration of information specifying structure from stereopsis and motion. , 1989, Science.

[11]  B J Rogers,et al.  The Appearance of Surfaces Specified by Motion Parallax and Binocular Disparity , 1989, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[12]  H. Ono,et al.  Monocular stereopsis with and without head movement. , 1990, Perception & psychophysics.

[13]  James J. Clark,et al.  Data Fusion for Sensory Information Processing Systems , 1990 .

[14]  W C Gogel,et al.  A theory of phenomenal geometry and its applications , 1990, Perception & psychophysics.

[15]  M. Arbib.  Interaction of multiple representations of space in the brain. , 1991 .

[16]  R. Blake,et al.  The interplay between stereopsis and structure from motion , 1991, Perception & psychophysics.

[17]  E. Johnston.  Systematic distortions of shape from stereopsis , 1991, Vision Research.

[18]  Michael S. Landy,et al.  Psychophysical estimation of the human depth combination rule , 1991, Other Conferences.

[19]  S Thorpe,et al.  Modulation of neural stereoscopic processing in primate area V1 by the viewing distance. , 1992, Science.

[20]  D. Proffitt,et al.  Depth perception in motion parallax and stereokinesis. , 1993, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[21]  M. Landy,et al.  A perturbation analysis of depth perception from combinations of texture and motion cues , 1993, Vision Research.

[22]  R. Blake,et al.  On the perceptual identity of dynamic stereopsis and kinetic depth , 1993, Vision Research.

[23]  Michael S. Landy,et al.  Integration of stereopsis and motion shape cues , 1994, Vision Research.

[24]  G. Kane.  Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition, vol 1: Foundations, vol 2: Psychological and Biological Models , 1994 .

[25]  Yves Chauvin,et al.  Backpropagation: theory, architectures, and applications , 1995 .

[26]  D R Proffitt,et al.  Comparing depth from motion with depth from binocular disparity. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[27]  M. Landy,et al.  Measurement and modeling of depth cue combination: in defense of weak fusion , 1995, Vision Research.

[28]  J. Todd,et al.  Systematic distortion of perceived three-dimensional structure from motion and binocular stereopsis. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[29]  B. Rogers,et al.  The effect of display size on disparity scaling from differential perspective and vergence cues , 1996, Vision Research.

[30]  D. Sheinberg,et al.  Shape from texture: ideal observers and human psychophysics , 1996 .

[31]  Michael C. Mozer,et al.  Mathematical Perspectives on Neural Networks , 1996 .

[32]  E. Brenner,et al.  Holding an object one is looking at: Kinesthetic information on the object’s distance does not improve visual judgments of its size , 1997, Perception & psychophysics.

[33]  G J Andersen,et al.  Relationship between binocular disparity and motion parallax in surface detection , 1997, Perception & psychophysics.

[34]  J. Todd,et al.  The perception of surface curvature from optical motion , 1998, Perception & psychophysics.