Seeing In Depth Depth Perception

The three-volume work Perceiving in Depth is a sequel to Binocular Vision and Stereopsis and to Seeing in Depth, both by Ian P. Howard and Brian J. Rogers. This work is much broader in scope than the previous books and includes mechanisms of depth perception by all senses, including aural, electrosensory organs, and the somatosensory system. Volume 1 reviews sensory coding, psychophysical and analytic procedures, and basic visual mechanisms. Volume 2 reviews stereoscopic vision. Volume 3 reviews all mechanisms of depth perception other than stereoscopic vision. The three volumes are extensively illustrated and referenced and provide the most detailed review of all aspects of perceiving the three-dimensional world.Volume 1 starts with a review of the history of visual science from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century with special attention devoted to the discovery of the principles of perspective and stereoscopic vision. The first chapter also contains an account of early visual display systems, such as panoramas and peepshows, and the development of stereoscopes and stereophotography. A chapter on the psychophysical and analytic procedures used in investigations of depth perception is followed by a chapter on sensory coding and the geometry of visual space. An account of the structure and physiology of the primate visual system proceeds from the eye through the LGN to the visual cortex and higher visual centers. This is followed by a review of the evolution of visual systems and of the development of the mammalian visual system in the embryonic and post-natal periods, with an emphasis on experience-dependent neural plasticity. An account of the development of perceptual functions, especially depth perception, is followed by a review of the effects of early visual deprivation during the critical period of neural plasticity on amblyopia and other defects in depth perception. Volume 1 ends with accounts of the accommodation mechanism of the human eye and vergence eye movements.

In its two volumes 'Seeing in Depth' provides a detailed review of all aspects of seeing the three-dimensional world, along with 7,000 references and 800 illustrations. This book is a valuable resource for researchers in space perception, visual neuroscience, ophthalmology, optometry, visual development, animal vision, and computational vision.

Volume 2 addresses stereoscopic vision. It starts with the physiology of stereoscopic mechanisms. It then deals with binocular rivalry, binocular summation, and interocular transfer. A review of how images are brought into binocular register is followed by a review of stimulus tokens used to detect disparities. Cyclopean effects, such as cyclopean illusions, cyclopean motion, texture segregation, and binocular direction are reviewed. Factors that influence stereoacuity are discussed. Two chapters describe how stimuli in distinct depth planes produce contrast effects, and affect motion perception and whiteness perception. The Pulfrich stereomotion effect and perception of motion in depth are reviewed. The volume ends with a review of applications of stereoscopy.

This textbook is intended for use in a course for undergraduate students in biology, neuroscience or psychology who have had an introductory course on the structure and function of the nervous system. Its primary purpose is to provide a working vocabulary and knowledge of the biology of vision and to acquaint students with the major themes in biological vision research. Part I treats the eye as an image-forming organ and provides an overview of the projections from the retina to key visual structures of the brain. Part II examines the functions of the retina and its central projections in greater detail, building on the introductory material of Part I. Part III treats certain special topics in vision that require this detailed knowledge of the structure and properties of the retina and visual projections.

In The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world. There is Lilian, a concert pianist who becomes unable to read music and is eventually unable even to recognize everyday objects, and Sue, a neurobiologist who has never seen in three dimensions, until she suddenly acquires stereoscopic vision in her fifties. There is Pat, who reinvents herself as a loving grandmother and active member of her community, despite the fact that she has aphasia and cannot utter a sentence, and Howard, a prolific novelist who must find a way to continue his life as a writer even after a stroke destroys his ability to read. And there is Dr. Sacks himself, who tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side. Sacks explores some very strange paradoxes—people who can see perfectly well but cannot recognize their own children, and blind people who become hyper-visual or who navigate by “tongue vision.” He also considers more fundamental questions: How do we see? How do we think? How important is internal imagery—or vision, for that matter? Why is it that, although writing is only five thousand years old, humans have a universal, seemingly innate, potential for reading? The Mind’s Eye is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation. And it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to see with another person’s eyes, or another person’s mind.

The three-volume work Perceiving in Depth is a sequel to Binocular Vision and Stereopsis and to Seeing in Depth, both by Ian P. Howard and Brian J. Rogers. This work is much broader in scope than the previous books and includes mechanisms of depth perception by all senses, including aural, electrosensory organs, and the somatosensory system. Volume 1 reviews sensory coding, psychophysical and analytic procedures, and basic visual mechanisms. Volume 2 reviews stereoscopic vision. Volume 3 reviews all mechanisms of depth perception other than stereoscopic vision. The three volumes are extensively illustrated and referenced and provide the most detailed review of all aspects of perceiving the three-dimensional world. Volume 3 addresses all depth-perception mechanisms other than stereopsis. The book starts with an account of monocular cues to depth, including accommodation, vergence eye movements, perspective, interposition, shading, and motion parallax. A chapter on constancies in depth perception, such as the ability to perceive the sizes and shapes of objects as they move or rotate in depth, is followed by a chapter on the ways in which depth cues interact. The next chapter reviews sources of information, such as changing disparity, image looming, and vergence eye movements, used in the perception of objects moving in depth. Various pathologies of depth perception, including visual neglect, stereoanomalies, and albanism are reviewed. Visual depth-perception mechanisms through the animal kingdom are described, starting with insects and progressing through crustaceans, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The chapter includes a discussion of how stereoscopic vision may have evolved. The next chapter describes how visual depth perception is used to guide reaching movements of the hand, avoiding obstacles, and walking to a distant object. The next three chapters review non-visual mechanisms of depth perception. Auditory mechanisms include auditory localization, echolocation in bats and marine mammals, and the lateral-line system of fish. Some fish emit electric discharges and then use electric sense organs to detect distortions of the electric field produced by nearby objects. Some beetles and snakes use heat-sensitive sense organs to detect sources of heat. The volume ends with a discussion of mechanisms used by animals to navigate to a distant site. Ants find their way back to the nest by using landmarks and by integrating their walking movements. Several animals navigate by the stars or by polarized sunlight. It seems that animals in several phyla navigate by detecting the Earths magnetic field.