Surface perception in pictures

Koenderink, Jan J.; Doorn, Andrea J. van; Kappers, Astrid M. L.

doi:10.3758/bf03206710

Cited by 234 publications

(219 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…To test this theory, we made stimuli in which we parametrically varied the amount of smear applied to the noise (more smear produces stronger orientation signals). We then asked subjects to adjust the 3D orientation of "gauge figure" probes distributed across the surface, to indicate the perceived local surface orientation (34). Subjects could click a button during the experiment to view a reconstruction of the reported 3D shape to compare with their percept of the shape-from-smear stimuli.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of 3D shape from image orientations

Fleming

Holtmann-Rice

Bülthoff

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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One of the main functions of vision is to estimate the 3D shape of objects in our environment. Many different visual cues, such as stereopsis, motion parallax, and shading, are thought to be involved. One important cue that remains poorly understood comes from surface texture markings. When a textured surface is slanted in 3D relative to the observer, the surface patterns appear compressed in the retinal image, providing potentially important information about 3D shape. What is not known, however, is how the brain actually measures this information from the retinal image. Here, we explain how the key information could be extracted by populations of cells tuned to different orientations and spatial frequencies, like those found in the primary visual cortex. To test this theory, we created stimuli that selectively stimulate such cell populations, by "smearing" (filtering) images of 2D random noise into specific oriented patterns. We find that the resulting patterns appear vividly 3D, and that increasing the strength of the orientation signals progressively increases the sense of 3D shape, even though the filtering we apply is physically inconsistent with what would occur with a real object. This finding suggests we have isolated key mechanisms used by the brain to estimate shape from texture. Crucially, we also find that adapting the visual system's orientation detectors to orthogonal patterns causes unoriented random noise to look like a specific 3D shape. Together these findings demonstrate a crucial role of orientation detectors in the perception of 3D shape.shape perception | surface perception | orientation field | complex cells W hen we look at a textured object, the projection of the surface markings into the retinal image compresses them in ways that can indicate the object's 3D shape. This compression has two distinct causes. The first cause is distance-dependent: when a surface patch is moved further away from the eye, the texture shrinks isotropically in the image as a function of the distance. The second cause of compression is foreshortening: when a surface is slanted relative to the line of sight, the texture is anisotropically compressed along the direction of the slant, with greater slant leading to greater compression.It is well known that the visual system can use these texture compression cues to estimate 3D shape (1-9). What is not known, however, is how the visual system measures the compression at each point in the image. A crucial stage in any theory of 3D vision must include an explanation of how the visual system extracts the key information from the image. At present, there is an explanatory gap between the known response properties of cells early in the visual processing hierarchy, which measure local 2D image features (10-16), and cells higher in the processing stream, which respond to various 3D shape properties (17-24). How does the brain put the measurements made in the primary visual cortex (V1) to good use to arrive at an estimate of 3D shape?Estimating the extent and direction of ...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of 3D shape from image orientations

Fleming

Holtmann-Rice

Bülthoff

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…In this study we employed gauge figures such as shown in figure 2. The gauge figure was superimposed over the picture at some fiducial location and then was manually controlled via a computer mouse and adjusted by the subject so as to fit the local surface attitude visually-or rather 'pictoriaHy' (Koenderink et al 1992). The nature of the fit is defined via the instruction that the elliptical circumference of the gauge figure should appear as the outline of a circular disc painted on the surface.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On So-Called Paradoxical Monocular Stereoscopy

1994

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Abstract. Human observers are apparently well able to judge properties of 'three-dimensional objects' on the basis of flat pictures such as photographs of physical objects. They obtain this 'pictorial relief without much conscious effort and with little interference from the (flat) picture surface. Methods for 'magnifying' pictorial relief from single pictures include viewing instructions as well as a variety of monocular and binocular 'viewboxes'. Such devices are reputed to yield highly increased pictorial depth, though no methodologies for the objective verification of such claims exist. A binocular viewbox has been reconstructed and pictorial relief under monocular, 'synoptic', and natural binocular viewing is described. The results corroborate and go beyond early introspective reports and turn out to pose intriguing problems for modern research.

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“…This protocol was described in previous experiments such as [32] and [23]. Participants were shown a series of images from the system and asked to rotate gauges which overlaid the images to match the surface normal of the isosurface at that point.…”

Section: User Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual enhancement of two-level volume rendering

Corcoran

Redmond

Dingliana

2010

Computers & Graphics

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We present a system for interactive visualisation of 3D volumetric medical datasets combined with perceptual evaluation of how such visualizations can affect a user's interpretation of scenes and attention. Enhancements to traditional volume renderings are provided through a two-level volume rendering strategy which employs fast GPU-based Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) coupled with an additional layer of perceptual cues derived from various techniques from the nonphotorealistic rendering (NPR) literature. The two-level approach allows us to successfully separate the most relevant data from peripheral extraneous detail enabling the user to more effectively understand the visual information. Peripheral details are abstracted but sufficiently retained in order to provide spatial reference. We perform a number of perceptual user experiments which test how this approach affects a user's attention and ability to determine the shape of an object. Results indicate that our approach can provide a significant improvement in user perception of shape in complex visualizations, especially when a user has little or no prior knowledge of the data. Our approach would prove extremely useful in technical, medical or scientific visualizations to improve understanding of detailed volumetric datasets. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 A c c e p t e d m a n u s c r i p t Perceptual Enhancement of Two-level Volume Rendering AbstractWe present a system for interactive visualisation of 3D volumetric medical datasets combined with perceptual evaluation of how such visualizations can affect a user's interpretation of scenes and attention. Enhancements to traditional volume renderings are provided through a two-level volume rendering strategy which employs fast GPU-based Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) coupled with an additional layer of perceptual cues derived from various techniques from the non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) literature. The two-level approach allows us to successfully separate the most relevant data from peripheral extraneous detail enabling the user to more effectively understand the visual information. Peripheral details are abstracted but sufficiently retained in order to provide spatial reference. We perform a number of perceptual user experiments which test how this approach affects a user's attention and ability to determine the shape of an object. Results indicate that our approach can provide a significant improvement in user perception of shape in complex visualizations, especially when a user has little or no prior knowledge of the data. Our approach would prove extremely useful in technical, medical or scientific visualizations to improve understanding of detailed volumetric datasets.

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Surface perception in pictures

Cited by 234 publications

References 9 publications

Estimation of 3D shape from image orientations

Estimation of 3D shape from image orientations

On So-Called Paradoxical Monocular Stereoscopy

Perceptual enhancement of two-level volume rendering

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