Spatial Judgments with Monoscopic and Stereoscopic Presentation of Perspective Displays

Abstract

Spatial judgments with monoscopic and stereoscopic presentation of perspective displays were investigated in the present study. The stimulus configuration emulated a visual scene consisting of a volume of airspace above a ground reference plane. Two target symbols were situated at various positions in the space, and observers were instructed to identify the relative depth or altitude of the two symbols. Three viewing orientations (15, 45, or 90 deg elevation angle) were implemented in the perspective projection. In the monoscopic view, depth cues in size, brightness, occlusion, and linear perspective were provided in the format. In the stereoscopic view, binocular disparity was added along the line of sight from the center of projection to reinforce the relative depth in the visual scene. Results revealed that spatial judgments were affected by manipulation of the relative spatial positions of the two target symbols and by the interaction between relative position and viewing orientation. The addition of binocular disparity improved judgments of three-dimensional spatial relationships, and the enhancement was greater when monocular depth cues were less effective and/or ambiguous in recovering the three-dimensional spatial characteristics.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adelson, S. J. , Badre, A. N. , Hodges, L. F. , and Lunde, A. C. (1990). Comparison of different techniques for determination of shape and relative position of objects. In Society for Information Display Digest of Technical Papers (Vol. 21, pp. 351–354). Playa del Rey, CA: Society for Information Display.

Beaton, R. J. (1990). Displaying information in depth. In Society for Information Display Digest of Technical Papers (Vol. 21, pp. 355–358). Playa del Rey, CA: Society for Information Display.

Beaton, R. J. , DeHoff, R. J. , Weiman, N. , and Hildebrandt, P. W. (1987). An evaluation of input devices for 3D computer display workstations. In Proceedings of the SPIE: True three-dimensional imaging techniques and display techniques (Vol. 761, 94–101). Bellingham, WA: International Society for Optical Engineering.

Bemis, S. V. , Leeds, J. L. , and Winer, E. A. (1988). Operator performance as a function of type of display: Conventional versus perspective. Human Factors, 30, 163–169.

Braunstein, M. L. (1976). Depth perception through motion. New York: Academic.

Brookes, A. , and Stevens, K. A. (1989). Binocular depth from surfaces vs. volumes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 15, 479–484.

Ellis, S. R. (1989). Visions of visualization aids: Design philosophy and observations. In Proceedings of SPIE: Three-dimensional visualization and display technologies (Vol. 1083, 220–225). Bellingham, WA: International Society for Optical Engineering.

Ellis, S. R. , and McGreevy, M. W. (1987). Perspective traffic display format and airline pilot traffic avoidance. Human Factors, 29, 371–382.

Ellis, S. R. , Tharp, G. K. , Grunwald, A. J. , and Smith, S. (1991). Exocentric judgments in real environments and stereoscopic displays. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting (pp. 1442–1446). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

10.

Faber, J. , and Rosinski, R. (1978). Geometric transformations of pictured space. Perception, 7, 269–282.

11.

Foley, J. D. , and Van Dam, A. (1982). Fundamentals of interactive computer graphics. London: Addison-Wesley.

12.

Gillam, B. , Chambers, D. , and Russo, T. (1988). Postfusional latency in stereoscopic slant perception and primitives of stereopsis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14, 163–175.

13.

Halloran, T. O. (1989). Picture perception is array-specific: Viewing angle versus apparent orientation. Perception and Psychophysics, 45, 467–482.

14.

Keppel, G. (1982). Design and analysis: A researcher's handbook. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

15.

Kim, W. S. , Ellis, S. R. , Tyler, M. E. , Hannaford, B. , and Stark, L. W. (1987). Quantitative evaluation of perspective and stereoscopic displays in a three-axis manual tracking task. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 17, 61–71.

16.

McGreevy, M. W. , and Ellis, S. R. (1986). The effect of perspective geometry on judged direction in spatial information instruments. Human Factors, 28, 439–456.

17.

Pepper, R. L. , Smith, D. C. , and Cole, R. E. (1981). Stereo TV improves operator performance under degraded visibility conditions. Optical Engineering, 20, 579–585.

18.

Regan, D. and Beverley, K. I. (1973). Some dynamic features of depth perception. Vision Research, 13, 2369–2379.

19.

Rogers, B. , and Cagenello, B. (1989). Disparity curvature and the perception of three-dimensional surfaces. Nature, 339, 135–137.

20.

Sedgwick, H. A. (1983). Environment-centered representation of spatial layout: Available information from texture and perspective. In A. Rosenthal and J. Beck (Eds.), Human and machine vision (pp. 425–458). New York: Academic.

21.

Silverstein, L. D. , Yeh, Y.-Y. , Hancock, W. R. , Huff, J. , Gomer, F. E. , Johnson, M. J. , and Larson, H. (1989). TCAS III display analysis (Honeywell Tech. Report No. R69-2891-00 to FAA under the Advanced TCAS III Research and Development Project). Phoenix: Honeywell, Inc.

22.

Sollenberger, R. L. , and Milgram, P. (1991). A comparative study of rotational and stereoscopic computer graphic depth cues. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting (pp. 1452–1456). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

23.

Stevens, K. A. , and Brookes, A. (1990). A system for generating and modification of stereo disparity in images. In Proceedings of the 1990 International Conference on Automation, Robotics, and Computer Vision (pp. 1049–1053). Singapore: Institute of Engineers.

24.

Way, T. (1988). Stereopsis in cockpit display--A part-task test. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting (pp. 58–62). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

25.

Yeh, Y.-Y. , and Silverstein, L. D. (1990). Limits of fusion and depth judgment in stereoscopic displays. Human Factors, 32, 45–60.

26.

Zenyuh, J. , Reising, J. M. , Walchli, S. , and Biers, D. (1988). A comparison of a stereographic 3D display versus a 2D display. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting (pp. 53–57). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.