Depth Perception in Humans and Animals

Abstract

This thesis has been the product of three projects which are all related to depth perception, within the core discipline of vision science. The first project was collaborative work between the University of Durham and researchers at University of California, Berkeley. These included Prof. Martin S. Banks and Bill Sprague at U.C. Berkeley, and Dr. Jurgen Schmoll and Prof. Gordon Love at the University of Durham. This project built on previous research investigating the ocular adaptations in different land-dwelling vertebrate species. We found that we could strongly predict pupil shape based on the diel activity and trophic strategies of a species, and our simulations showed that multifocal pupils may extend depth of focus. The second project was also in collaboration with U.C. Berkeley; Prof. Martin S. Banks, and Paul Johnson, which involved a study into 3D displays and different approaches to reducing the vergence-accommodation conflict. Our results showed that a focus-correct adaptive system did assist in the vergence-accommodation conflict, but monovision was less efficacious and we believe this was due to a reduction in stereoacuity. The third project considered spherical aberration as a cue to the sign of defocus. We present simulations which show that the spatial frequency content of images on either side of focus differ, and suggest that this could, in principle, drive the accommodative process.