Optimal binocular disparity estimation in the presence of natural depth variation

ABSTRACTLocal depth variation is a distinctive property of natural scenes and its effects on perception have only recently begun to be investigated. Here, we demonstrate how natural depth variation impacts performance in two fundamental tasks related to stereopsis: half-occlusion detection and disparity detection. We report the results of a computational study that uses a large database of calibrated natural stereo-images with precisely co-registered laser-based distance measurements. First, we develop a procedure for precisely sampling stereo-image patches from the stereo-images, based on the distance measurements. The local depth variation in each stereo-image patch is quantified by disparity contrast. Next, we show that increased disparity contrast degrades performance in half-occlusion detection and disparity detection tasks, and changes the size and shape of the optimal spatial integration areas (“receptive fields”) for computing the task-relevant decision variables. Then, we show that a simple binocular image statistic predicts disparity contrast in natural scenes. Finally, we report results on the most likely patterns of disparity variation in natural scenes. Our findings motivate computational and psychophysical investigations of the mechanisms that underlie disparity estimation in local regions of natural scenes.

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Evolutionary methods applied to binocular disparity estimation

Computer Vision — ACCV'98 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ◽

10.1007/3-540-63930-6_130 ◽

1997 ◽

pp. 264-271

Author(s):

Carla L. Pagliari ◽

Tim J. Dennis

Keyword(s):

Binocular Disparity ◽

Disparity Estimation ◽

Evolutionary Methods

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Human binocular disparity estimation with natural stereo-images

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/18.10.993 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (10) ◽

pp. 993 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David White ◽

Johannes Burge

Keyword(s):

Binocular Disparity ◽

Disparity Estimation ◽

Stereo Images

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Crossed–uncrossed projections from primate retina are adapted to disparities of natural scenes

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2015651118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (7) ◽

pp. e2015651118

Author(s):

Agostino Gibaldi ◽

Noah C. Benson ◽

Martin S. Banks

Keyword(s):

Visual Field ◽

Binocular Disparity ◽

Nerve Fibers ◽

Disparity Estimation ◽

Natural Scenes ◽

Contralateral Hemisphere ◽

Vertical Meridian ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

Decussation Pattern ◽

The Brain

In mammals with frontal eyes, optic-nerve fibers from nasal retina project to the contralateral hemisphere of the brain, and fibers from temporal retina project ipsilaterally. The division between crossed and uncrossed projections occurs at or near the vertical meridian. If the division was precise, a problem would arise. Small objects near midline, but nearer or farther than current fixation, would produce signals that travel to opposite hemispheres, making the binocular disparity of those objects difficult to compute. However, in species that have been studied, the division is not precise. Rather, there are overlapping crossed and uncrossed projections such that some fibers from nasal retina project ipsilaterally as well as contralaterally and some from temporal retina project contralaterally as well as ipsilaterally. This increases the probability that signals from an object near vertical midline travel to the same hemisphere, thereby aiding disparity estimation. We investigated whether there is a deficit in binocular vision near the vertical meridian in humans and found no evidence for one. We also investigated the effectiveness of the observed decussation pattern, quantified from anatomical data in monkeys and humans. We used measurements of naturally occurring disparities in humans to determine disparity distributions across the visual field. We then used those distributions to calculate the probability of natural disparities transmitting to the same hemisphere, thereby aiding disparity computation. We found that the pattern of overlapping projections is quite effective. Thus, crossed and uncrossed projections from the retinas are well designed for aiding disparity estimation and stereopsis.

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