Pseudo-holographic device elicits rapid depth cues despite random-dot surface masking

Experiments with random-dot masking demonstrate that, in the absence of cues mundanely available to 2-D displays (object occlusion, surface shading, perspective foreshortening, and texture gradients), Holografika's large-screen multi-projector video system (COHERENT-IST-FP6-510166) elicits useful stereoscopic and motion-parallax depth cues, and does so in under 2 s. We employed a simplified version of Julesz's (c. 1971) famous spiral ramp surface: a 3-layer cylindrical wedding-cake--via an openGL model that subjects viewed along its concentric axis. By adjusting its parameters, two sets of model-stimuli were rendered: one with a uniform large field of depth and one where the field was effectively flat. Each of eleven, pre-screened, subjects completed four experiments, each consisting of eight trials in a 2IFC design whereby they indicated in which interval they perceived the greatest field of depth. The experiments tested one-eye static, one-eye head-swaying, two-eye static, and two-eye head-swaying observation--in that order. Scores improved also in that order.

@InProceedings{BAGZ07a,
  author       = {Brelstaff, G. and Agus, M. and Gobbetti, E. and Zanetti, G.},
  title        = {Pseudo-holographic device elicits rapid depth cues despite random-dot surface masking},
  booktitle    = {Perception, ECVP 2007 Abstract Supplement},
  volume       = {36},
  pages        = {202},
  year         = {2007},
  address      = {Conference held in Arezzo, Italy},
  note         = {idxproject: COHERENT},
  url          = {https://publications.crs4.it/pubdocs/2007/BAGZ07a},
}