Abstract

Recent studies on the perception of disparity gradients show that the perceived difference in depth between two stimuli decreases continuously with increasing steepness of the disparity gradient, i.e., decreasing interocular distance between stimuli.¹ This scaling effect is stronger for horizontal than for oblique orientations and also stronger for line stimuli than for point stimuli. We propose a model to explain the scaling effect based on minimizing an energy function. Since the visual system is not able to determine the retinal positions of the stimuli exactly, our model allows for uncertainty in these positions. Our energy cost function tries to find the smoothest possible surface allowing for this uncertainty. For the stimuli described above we analyzed the model mathematically and performed computer simulations when necessary.

© 1987 Optical Society of America