Encoding and estimation of first- and second-order binocular disparity in natural images

Paul B Hibbard; Ross Goutcher; David W Hunter

doi:10.1016/j.visres.2015.10.016

Encoding and estimation of first- and second-order binocular disparity in natural images

Vision Res. 2016 Mar:120:108-20. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.10.016. Epub 2016 Jan 14.

Authors

Paul B Hibbard¹, Ross Goutcher², David W Hunter³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK; School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, South Street, St Andrews, KY16 9JP Scotland, UK. Electronic address: phibbard@essex.ac.uk.
² Psychology, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK.
³ School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, South Street, St Andrews, KY16 9JP Scotland, UK.

Abstract

The first stage of processing of binocular information in the visual cortex is performed by mechanisms that are bandpass-tuned for spatial frequency and orientation. Psychophysical and physiological evidence have also demonstrated the existence of second-order mechanisms in binocular processing, which can encode disparities that are not directly accessible to first-order mechanisms. We compared the responses of first- and second-order binocular filters to natural images. We found that the responses of the second-order mechanisms are to some extent correlated with the responses of the first-order mechanisms, and that they can contribute to increasing both the accuracy, and depth range, of binocular stereopsis.

Keywords: Binocular disparity; Binocular energy model; Depth perception; Natural images; Second-order stereopsis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Psychophysics
Vision Disparity / physiology*
Vision, Binocular / physiology*
Visual Cortex / physiology
Visual Perception / physiology*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding