title: The (In)Effectiveness of Simulated Blur for Depth Perception in Naturalistic Images.
abstract: We examine depth perception in images of real scenes with naturalistic variation in pictorial depth cues, simulated dioptric blur and binocular disparity. Light field photographs of natural scenes were taken with a Lytro plenoptic camera that simultaneously captures images at up to 12 focal planes. When accommodation at any given plane was simulated, the corresponding defocus blur at other depth planes was extracted from the stack of focal plane images. Depth information from pictorial cues, relative blur and stereoscopic disparity was separately introduced into the images. In 2AFC tasks, observers were required to indicate which of two patches extracted from these images was farther. Depth discrimination sensitivity was highest when geometric and stereoscopic disparity cues were both present. Blur cues impaired sensitivity by reducing the contrast of geometric information at high spatial frequencies. While simulated generic blur may not assist depth perception, it remains possible that dioptric blur from the optics of an observer's own eyes may be used to recover depth information on an individual basis. The implications of our findings for virtual reality rendering technology are discussed.
authors.affiliation: UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maiello
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chessa
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Solari
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Bex
mesh_terms: D003867:Depth Perception; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014584:User-Computer Interface