The influence of background topography on stereo-acuity

Abstract

Human depth perception can be strongly affected by the characteristics of the environment. Previous studies have assessed visual acuity in the frontoparallel plane but little is known about the effect of background topography on stereoacuity. In the present experiment, based on alignment tasks, we analyzed how stimulus orientation and 3D background configuration influence stereoscopic vision. An experiment was designed to investigate the influence of stimulus orientation (0, 45 and 90 degrees) and background configuration (flat, black, concave and convex) on precision in 3D visual alignment tasks in a virtual environment. Background was found to result in an underestimation of stereoacuity, with the highest and lowest precision scores in comparison judgment tasks corresponding to convex and concave backgrounds, respectively. In addition, a significant orientation by background interaction was discovered. We conclude that background local depth cues are integrated with our target stimuli to contribute to depth perception