The effect of monocular depth cues on the detection of moving objects by moving observers.
An observer moving through the world must be able to identify and locate moving objects in the scene. In principle, one could accomplish this task by detecting object images moving at a different angle or speed than the images of other items in the optic flow field. While angle of motion provides an unambiguous cue that an object is moving relative to other items in the scene, a difference in speed could be due to a difference in the depth of the objects and thus is an ambiguous cue. We tested whether the addition of information about the distance of objects from the observer, in the form of monocular depth cues, aided detection of moving objects. We found that thresholds for detection of object motion decreased as we increased the number of depth cues available to the observer.
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, College of the Holy Cross, United States. Electronic address: croyden@holycross.edu.
Constance S
CS
Royden
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, College of the Holy Cross, United States.
Daniel
D
Parsons
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, College of the Holy Cross, United States.
Joshua
J
Travatello
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003463:Cues; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology
Depth; Motion; Moving object detection; Optic flow