Families of stationary patterns producing illusory movement: insights into the visual system.
A computational explanation of the illusory movement experienced upon extended viewing of Enigma, a static figure painted by Leviant, is presented. The explanation relies on a model for the interpretation of three-dimensional motion information contained in retinal motion measurements. This model shows that the Enigma figure is a special case of a larger class of figures exhibiting the same illusory movement and these figures are introduced here. Our explanation suggests that eye movements and/or accommodation changes cause weak retinal motion signals, which are interpreted by higher-level processes in a way that gives rise to these illusions, and proposes a number of new experiments to unravel the functional structure of the motion pathway.
Fermüller
C
C
Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, College Park 20742-3275, USA.
Pless
R
R
Aloimonos
Y
Y
D000065:Accommodation, Ocular; D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009039:Motion Perception; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*