Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and ApplicationsLuckiesh, Matthew
Science
Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications
Luckiesh, Matthew
Optical illusions
The two eyes look at a scene from two different points of view
respectively and their images do not perfectly agree, as has been shown in
Figs. 2 and 3. This binocular disparity is responsible to some degree for
the perception of depth, as the stereoscope has demonstrated. If two
spheres of the same size are suspended on invisible strings, one at six
feet, the other at seven feet away, one eye sees the two balls in the same
plane, but one appears larger than the other. With binocular vision the
balls appear at different distances, but judgment appraises them as of
approximately equal size. At that distance the focal adjustment is not
much different for both balls, so that the muscular movement, due to
focusing the eye, plays a small part in the estimation of the relative
distance. Binocular disparity and convergence are the primary factors.
Some have held that the perception of depth, that is, of a relative
distance, arises from the process of unconsciously running the point of
sight back and forth. However, this view, unmodified, appears untenable
when it is considered that a scene illuminated by a lightning flash (of
the order of magnitude of a thousandth of a second) is seen even in this
brief moment to have depth. Objects are seen in relief, in actual relation
as to distance and in normal perspective, even under the extremely brief
illumination of an electric spark (of the order of magnitude of one
twenty-thousandth of a second). This can also be demonstrated by viewing
stereoscopic pictures with a stereoscope, the illumination being furnished
by an electric spark. Under these circumstances relief and perspective are
quite satisfactory. Surely in these brief intervals the point of sight
cannot do much surveying of a scene.
Parallax aids in the perception of depth or distance. If the head be moved
laterally the view or scene changes slightly. Objects or portions of
objects previously hidden by others may now become visible. Objects at
various distances appear to move nearer or further apart. We have come to
interpret these apparent movements of objects in a scene in terms of
relative distances; that is, the relative amount of parallactic
displacement is a measure of the relative distances of the objects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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