Abstract

I present a series of stereoscopic demonstrations to show that the perception of transparency is closely related to luminance, contour, and depth. An image region is seen as transparent if it is of intermediate luminance relative to adjacent image regions, if it is perceived to be in front of another region, and if it has a border that provides information indicating that a surface is visible through this region. Yet transparency is not a passive end product of these required conditions. If transparency is seen, a number of seemingly more elemental perceptual primitives such as color, contour, and depth, can be radically altered. Thus, with the perception of transparency, neon-color spreading becomes apparent, contours can disappear, and depth can be profoundly altered.

© 1990 Optical Society of America