Psychophysics of Picture Perception

图片之所以是如此强大的交流形式，原因之一是它们允许观众在二维表面上感知三维信息。 在某种程度上，这种维度扩展的壮举是如何完成的似乎是显而易见的：2D图片在视网膜上生成的图像与完整的3D场景生成的图像相似。 然而，只有当从正确的几何位置（投影中心）观看图片时，这才严格成立。 当从多个角度观看图片时，所得到的视网膜图像相对于投影中心是相当失真的，但观看者仍然重建3D场景。 摄影师、画家、计算机科学家、电影摄影师和视觉科学家都想知道这是如何工作的;也就是说，人们如何能够在各种观看位置上正确地感知图片中的场景？在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，班克斯博士将研究观众在不同观看位置感知图片中场景的方式。他和他的研究小组将研究各种观看条件，包括立体图片和广角图片，以确定人们最能准确感知图片内容的条件。 除了推进我们对视觉感知的基本理解外，这项工作还可能导致开发用于呈现图像信息的新技术。

One reason why pictures are such powerful forms of communication is that they allow viewers to perceive three-dimensional information on a two-dimensional surface. At one level, it may seem obvious how this feat of dimensional expansion is accomplished: a 2D picture generates an image on the retina that is similar to the image that would be generated by the full 3D scene. However, this is strictly true only when a picture is viewed from the geometrically correct position--the center of projection. When pictures are viewed from angles, the resulting retinal image is quite distorted relative to the center of projection, yet the viewer is still reconstruct the 3D scene. Photographers, painters, computer scientists, cinematographers, and vision scientists have all wondered how this works; that is, how are people able to perceive scenes in pictures correctly across a variety of viewing positions? With support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Banks will investigate the means by which viewers perceive scenes in pictures across various viewing positions. He and his research team will examine various viewing conditions including stereoscopic pictures and wide-angle pictures in order to determine those conditions in which people are most able to perceive picture content accurately. In addition to advancing our basic understanding of visual perception, this work may lead to the development of new techniques for presenting pictorial information.