Line at shape-from-shadow border tested with stereo.
Kennedy and Bai (2000 Perception 29 399-408) argued incorrect border polarity blocked perception of faces in shape-from-shadow 'Mooney faces' with dark lines at the contour, a display inspired by Hering. Their hypothesis was tested with several displays, notably binocular gratings made of lines of dots. The stereo-induced depth involved a shadow falling on two surface planes. Most of a dark-dotted (shadow) region appeared to be on one surface, but a strip of dark dots at the shadow's border appeared to be on another-to the fore or rear. Control conditions involved 'negative' images (white dots). Subjects saw the shadowed object as easily in dark-dotted images with stereo depth as in an image with uniform depth for all the dots, and more readily than in the negatives. Our results favour the border-polarity hypothesis.
Division of Life Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada. kennedy@utsc.utoronto.ca
John M
JM
Kennedy
Juan
J
Bai
D000328:Adult; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009903:Optical Illusions; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology