Magic Circle

Abstract

Full-horizon cylindrical projections of the optic array are in common use. One wonders whether the public actually profits from such pictorial information, since the space behind one’s back does not exist in visual awareness. In an experiment, a test image included six persons located at the corners of an irregular hexagon centred at the camera. Two persons faced the camera, two turned their back to the camera and two others faced a direction at right angles to the camera. The distances to the camera were unequal and varied from 1 to 2 m. Participants were asked to draw a ground plan of the perceived configuration, including actors and camera, on the basis of viewing the picture. As with any picture there exist many possible interpretations, the ambiguity grows even more when the angular scope of the picture is unknown. Almost all naïve viewers parse this planispheric (Mercator) representation so as to have the whole scene in front of them, with the actors standing in a circle, facing each other. They take the viewpoint to be outside the circle. Only a few placed the viewpoint inside the circle, which is indeed another reasonable interpretation (in this case the actual one).

Vision, an Optical User Interface

“…This leads to a peculiar inability to deal with full horizon panoramic images, a photographic technique that is rapidly becoming available to the general public. I have shown that this particular mental blindness to the extent of the full optic array applies to virtually all observers (Koenderink, van Doorn, & Wagemans, 2018c).…”

“…The latter takes training and cognitive “correction” of current awareness, not unlike what one experiences with the classical geometric illusions: One knows what one sees is not right. There is no doubt that one could learn to use such representations in a “right way,” just as there is little doubt that one would still “see them the wrong way” (Koenderink et al., 2018c; Koenderink & van Doorn, 2017).…”