scholarly journals Stereopsis is adaptive for the natural environment

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. e1400254 ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Sprague ◽  
Emily A. Cooper ◽  
Ivana Tošić ◽  
Martin S. Banks

Humans and many animals have forward-facing eyes providing different views of the environment. Precise depth estimates can be derived from the resulting binocular disparities, but determining which parts of the two retinal images correspond to one another is computationally challenging. To aid the computation, the visual system focuses the search on a small range of disparities. We asked whether the disparities encountered in the natural environment match that range. We did this by simultaneously measuring binocular eye position and three-dimensional scene geometry during natural tasks. The natural distribution of disparities is indeed matched to the smaller range of correspondence search. Furthermore, the distribution explains the perception of some ambiguous stereograms. Finally, disparity preferences of macaque cortical neurons are consistent with the natural distribution.

Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 79-79
Author(s):  
M S Banks ◽  
B T Backus

A vertical magnifier before one eye causes the induced effect: an apparent rotation of frontal surfaces toward that eye. The rotation required to restore apparent frontoparallelism grows linearly up to ∼4% magnification, but plateaus at 8%. We examined the cause of the plateau. Horizontal disparities (quantified by horizontal size ratios, HSRs) are ambiguous indicators of surface slant. Various retinal and nonretinal signals can allow veridical slant estimation from HSR, sensed eye position, vertical disparities (vertical size ratios, VSRs), and monocular cues. Vertical or horizontal magnification of one eye's image alters the natural relationships among HSR, VSR, eye position, and monocular cues. We argue that the induced-effect plateau is caused by conflicts between these means of estimating slant. A plateau is not observed in the geometric effect because some of the conflicts do not occur with horizontal magnification. Two experiments were designed to test this hypothesis. When strong monocular cues were present, plateaux occurred at ∼8% magnification in the induced, but not the geometric effect. When monocular slant cues were made useless, induced-effect plateaux were abolished. Even with strong monocular cues present, plateaux in the induced effect were eliminated when eye position was consistent with the vertical magnification in the retinal images. The smaller range of the induced effect can only be understood from consideration of all the signals involved in slant estimation.


Author(s):  
Seok Lee ◽  
Juyong Park ◽  
Dongkyung Nam

In this article, the authors present an image processing method to reduce three-dimensional (3D) crosstalk for eye-tracking-based 3D display. Specifically, they considered 3D pixel crosstalk and offset crosstalk and applied different approaches based on its characteristics. For 3D pixel crosstalk which depends on the viewer’s relative location, they proposed output pixel value weighting scheme based on viewer’s eye position, and for offset crosstalk they subtracted luminance of crosstalk components according to the measured display crosstalk level in advance. By simulations and experiments using the 3D display prototypes, the authors evaluated the effectiveness of proposed method.


2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Harper ◽  
Richard Latto

Stereo scene capture and generation is an important facet of presence research in that stereoscopic images have been linked to naturalness as a component of reported presence. Three-dimensional images can be captured and presented in many ways, but it is rare that the most simple and “natural” method is used: full orthostereoscopic image capture and projection. This technique mimics as closely as possible the geometry of the human visual system and uses convergent axis stereography with the cameras separated by the human interocular distance. It simulates human viewing angles, magnification, and convergences so that the point of zero disparity in the captured scene is reproduced without disparity in the display. In a series of experiments, we have used this technique to investigate body image distortion in photographic images. Three psychophysical experiments compared size, weight, or shape estimations (perceived waist-hip ratio) in 2-D and 3-D images for the human form and real or virtual abstract shapes. In all cases, there was a relative slimming effect of binocular disparity. A well-known photographic distortion is the perspective flattening effect of telephoto lenses. A fourth psychophysical experiment using photographic portraits taken at different distances found a fattening effect with telephoto lenses and a slimming effect with wide-angle lenses. We conclude that, where possible, photographic inputs to the visual system should allow it to generate the cyclopean point of view by which we normally see the world. This is best achieved by viewing images made with full orthostereoscopic capture and display geometry. The technique can result in more-accurate estimations of object shape or size and control of ocular suppression. These are assets that have particular utility in the generation of realistic virtual environments.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1575-1579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Nick ◽  
Sandeep Yadav ◽  
Ravi Joshi ◽  
Christiane Thielemann ◽  
Jörg J Schneider

The growth of cortical neurons on three dimensional structures of spatially defined (structured) randomly oriented, as well as on vertically aligned, carbon nanotubes (CNT) is studied. Cortical neurons are attracted towards both types of CNT nano-architectures. For both, neurons form clusters in close vicinity to the CNT structures whereupon the randomly oriented CNTs are more closely colonised than the CNT pillars. Neurons develop communication paths via neurites on both nanoarchitectures. These neuron cells attach preferentially on the CNT sidewalls of the vertically aligned CNT architecture instead than onto the tips of the individual CNT pillars.


1993 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 965-979 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Hepp ◽  
A. J. Van Opstal ◽  
D. Straumann ◽  
B. J. Hess ◽  
V. Henn

1. Although the eye has three rotational degrees of freedom, eye positions, during fixations, saccades, and smooth pursuit, with the head stationary and upright, are constrained to a plane by ListingR's law. We investigated whether Listing's law for rapid eye movements is implemented at the level of the deeper layers of the superior colliculus (SC). 2. In three alert rhesus monkeys we tested whether the saccadic motor map of the SC is two dimensional, representing oculocentric target vectors (the vector or V-model), or three dimensional, representing the coordinates of the rotation of the eye from initial to final position (the quaternion or Q-model). 3. Monkeys made spontaneous saccadic eye movements both in the light and in the dark. They were also rotated about various axes to evoke quick phases of vestibular nystagmus, which have three degrees of freedom. Eye positions were measured in three dimensions with the magnetic search coil technique. 4. While the monkey made spontaneous eye movements, we electrically stimulated the deeper layers of the SC and elicited saccades from a wide range of initial positions. According to the Q-model, the torsional component of eye position after stimulation should be uniquely related to saccade onset position. However, stimulation at 110 sites induced no eye torsion, in line with the prediction of the V-model. 5. Activity of saccade-related burst neurons in the deeper layers of the SC was analyzed during rapid eye movements in three dimensions. No systematic eye-position dependence of the movement fields, as predicted by the Q-model, could be detected for these cells. Instead, the data fitted closely the predictions made by the V-model. 6. In two monkeys, both SC were reversibly inactivated by symmetrical bilateral injections of muscimol. The frequency of spontaneous saccades in the light decreased dramatically. Although the remaining spontaneous saccades were slow, Listing's law was still obeyed, both during fixations and saccadic gaze shifts. In the dark, vestibularly elicited fast phases of nystagmus could still be generated in three dimensions. Although the fastest quick phases of horizontal and vertical nystagmus were slower by about a factor of 1.5, those of torsional quick phases were unaffected. 7. On the basis of the electrical stimulation data and the properties revealed by the movement field analysis, we conclude that the collicular motor map is two dimensional. The reversible inactivation results suggest that the SC is not the site where three-dimensional fast phases of vestibular nystagmus are generated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3440 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1323-1333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen M Berends ◽  
Raymond van Ee ◽  
Casper J Erkelens

It has been well established that vertical disparity is involved in perception of the three-dimensional layout of a visual scene. The goal of this paper was to examine whether vertical disparities can alter perceived direction. We dissociated the common relationship between vertical disparity and the stimulus direction by applying a vertical magnification to the image presented to one eye. We used a staircase paradigm to measure whether perceived straight-ahead depended on the amount of vertical magnification in the stimulus. Subjects judged whether a test dot was flashed to either the left or the right side of straight-ahead. We found that perceived straight-ahead did indeed depend on the amount of vertical magnification but only after subjects adapted (for 5 min) to vertical scale (and only in five out of nine subjects). We argue that vertical disparity is a factor in the calibration of the relationship between eye-position signals and perceived direction.


1987 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 832-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Tweed ◽  
T. Vilis

1. This paper develops three-dimensional models for the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) and the internal feedback loop of the saccadic system. The models differ qualitatively from previous, one-dimensional versions, because the commutative algebra used in previous models does not apply to the three-dimensional rotations of the eye. 2. The hypothesis that eye position signals are generated by an eye velocity integrator in the indirect path of the VOR must be rejected because in three dimensions the integral of angular velocity does not specify angular position. Computer simulations using eye velocity integrators show large, cumulative gaze errors and post-VOR drift. We describe a simple velocity to position transformation that works in three dimensions. 3. In the feedback control of saccades, eye position error is not the vector difference between actual and desired eye positions. Subtractive feedback models must continuously adjust the axis of rotation throughout a saccade, and they generate meandering, dysmetric gaze saccades. We describe a multiplicative feedback system that solves these problems and generates fixed-axis saccades that accord with Listing's law. 4. We show that Listing's law requires that most saccades have their axes out of Listing's plane. A corollary is that if three pools of short-lead burst neurons code the eye velocity command during saccades, the three pools are not yoked, but function independently during visually triggered saccades. 5. In our three-dimensional models, we represent eye position using four-component rotational operators called quaternions. This is not the only algebraic system for describing rotations, but it is the one that best fits the needs of the oculomotor system, and it yields much simpler models than do rotation matrix or other representations. 6. Quaternion models predict that eye position is represented on four channels in the oculomotor system: three for the vector components of eye position and one inversely related to gaze eccentricity and torsion. 7. Many testable predictions made by quaternion models also turn up in models based on other mathematics. These predictions are therefore more fundamental than the specific models that generate them. Among these predictions are 1) to compute eye position in the indirect path of the VOR, eye or head velocity signals are multiplied by eye position feedback and then integrated; consequently 2) eye position signals and eye or head velocity signals converge on vestibular neurons, and their interaction is multiplicative.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 566-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Dooley ◽  
Michaela S. Donaldson ◽  
Leah A. Krubitzer

The functional organization of the primary visual area (V1) and the importance of sensory experience in its normal development have been well documented in eutherian mammals. However, very few studies have investigated the response properties of V1 neurons in another large class of mammals, or whether sensory experience plays a role in shaping their response properties. Thus we reared opossums ( Monodelphis domestica) in normal and vertically striped cages until they reached adulthood. They were then anesthetized using urethane, and electrophysiological techniques were used to examine neuronal responses to different orientations, spatial and temporal frequencies, and contrast levels. For normal opossums, we observed responses to the temporal and spatial characteristics of the stimulus to be similar to those described in small, nocturnal, eutherian mammals such as rats and mice; neurons in V1 responded maximally to stimuli at 0.09 cycles per degree and 2.12 cycles per second. Unlike other eutherians, but similar to other marsupials investigated, only 40% of the neurons were orientation selective. In stripe-reared animals, neurons were significantly more likely to respond to vertical stimuli at a wider range of spatial frequencies, and were more sensitive to gratings at lower contrast values compared with normal animals. These results are the first to demonstrate experience-dependent plasticity in the visual system of a marsupial species. Thus the ability of cortical neurons to alter their properties based on the dynamics of the visual environment predates the emergence of eutherian mammals and was likely present in our earliest mammalian ancestors.NEW & NOTEWORTHY These results are the first description of visual response properties of the most commonly studied marsupial model organism, the short-tailed opossum ( Monodelphis domestica). Further, these results are the first to demonstrate experience-dependent plasticity in the visual system of a marsupial species. Thus the ability of cortical neurons to alter their properties based on the dynamics of the visual environment predates the emergence of eutherian mammals and was likely present in our earliest mammalian ancestors.


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