title: Detection of smooth three-dimensional surfaces from optic flow.
abstract: An assumption central to the study of 3-dimensional (3-D) shape perception is that sufficient information must be present to detect a 3-D surface. Three experiments were conducted to determine the variables important for the detection of 3-D surfaces from optic flow. Observers were presented with optic-flow displays simulating either points positioned on a corrugated 3-D surface or points randomly positioned within a 3-D volume. The task of the observer was to indicate whether the display appeared to be a 3-D surface. An increase in frequency of the corrugation for simple (single-frequency corrugation) surfaces resulted in a decrease in surface detection. Detection performance increased with an increase in density and amplitude for both simple and complex (multiple-frequency corrugation) surfaces. An analysis of the deformation of the displays suggests that 3-D surface detection may be based on the summed absolute value of the 2 shear components of deformation.
authors: Department of Psychology-075, University of California, Riverside 92521-0426, USA. andersen@ucrac1.ucr.edu
authors: G J
authors: GJ
authors: Andersen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003867:Depth Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D009903:Optical Illusions; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011601:Psychophysics; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth