Project Details
Description
With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Manish Singh will conduct two years of research on visual perception-how we see a complex, changing world of overlapping objects. The perceived world includes three dimensional objects and surfaces. The inputs to our eyes, however, are not 'objects' or 'surfaces,' but fluctuations in the two-dimensional arrays of light projected onto each retina. These retinal arrays change a great deal as we move in the world-as a couch gets partly hidden behind a coffee table when walking across a room, or a dog is partly seen behind thick foliage. A fundamental and unsolved problem of vision is to understand how our brain can sort out such complex changing light arrays into perceived surfaces and objects.
The funded research uses computer-generated stereoscopic displays in which some objects are partly occluded by other objects, and thus present only disjoined portions of their boundaries to the eyes. Despite this, observers perceive complete, unitary, objects-not disparate fragments. One aspect of the research program examines constraints involving both surface shape and contour geometry that may determine the continuity and shape of partly occluded objects. A second aspect of this research concerns when an occluding object is partially transparent. In this case, light reflected from two different surfaces (the transparent, and the underlying opaque surface) is merged at the retinas, but we see two separate surfaces placed at different depths along the same line of sight. This component of the research investigates the geometric (figural) and photometric (light intensity) constraints that the brain uses to split image luminance into two distinct surfaces placed at different depths.
This research will enhance understanding of a central aspect of human vision. Additionally, it will contribute valuable knowledge that can be used to construct artificial vision systems for recovery of surface layouts from camera images.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 9/15/02 → 8/31/05 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation: $179,845.00