Transcript

Hello. Today we are going to learn about an interesting phenomenon about perception
called as Depth Perception. (Slide 1) It is one of the ability that we have which allows us
to see the world in three dimensions. It is this ability because of which we are able to pick
up an object correctly at a distance. Or we are able to maintain distance from the people
ahead of us while walking and we do not hit them. It’s such a handy ability that we don’t
even realize that we have it.
How early in human life does this ability develop? Is it present at birth? This ability to
see the world in three dimensions is not actually present at birth; but it seems to develop
very early in infancy. People who were blind from birth and who have had sight restored
have almost no ability to perceive depth.
How do we perceive depth? Various cues exist which help us to perceive depth in the
world. Some cues require use of only one eye – these are called monocular cues. (slide 2)
And some cues result because of the use of both eyes. These are called binocular cues.
Now let’s understand some examples of monocular cues. (Slide 3)
Monocular cues –
Monocular cues are often referred to as pictorial depth cues because artist use these cues
to give illusions of depth to paintings and drawings. Some examples of these cues are –
(Slide 3)
1. Linear Perspective – have you ever seen long railway lines or a long highway?
Look at this picture (Slide 3)

The two lines of the railway track appear to merge together at a distance, right?
This tendency for lines that are actually parallel seem to converge on each other is
called Linear perspective. These converging lines give us a cue of great distance
 away. We experience the same phenomenon when we are travelling on a long
highway as shown in this picture – (Slide 4)

The second monocular cue is called – (slide 5)

2. Relative Size – When objects that people expect to be of a certain size appear to
be small then it is assumed that these objects are much farther away. For example,
a friend who is 6 feet tall appears to be smaller it is assumed that he is standing
very far away. Here the principal of Size Constancy is at work which is explained
in another video. Though the image of the friend appears smaller on retina, we still
perceive him as tall. This is called size constancy. Movie makers use this principle
to make their small models seem gigantic but off in the distance.
 Look at this picture. (slide 5) The goats which are far away appear to be smaller
than the one which is closer to camera. The smaller images of goats give us a cue
of distance.

The next monocular cue is called (slide 6)

3. Overlap – if one object seems to be blocking another object, people assume that
the blocked object is behind the first one and therefore farther away. For example,
you are finding an address of building ‘C’ which seems to be blocked by building
‘A’, then you understand that building ‘C’ is farther away than building ‘A’. This
cue is also known as Interposition.

Look at this picture (slide 6) In this picture too as the white building is blocked by
the blue building, we understand that the white building is far away than the blue
building.

The next monocular cue is called as – (slide 7)

4. Aerial / Atmospheric perspective – the farther away the object is, it will appear
hazier due to tiny particles of dust, dirt and other pollutants in the air. This
perceptual cue is called as Aerial / Atmospheric perspective. This is why distant
 mountains often look fuzzy, and buildings far in the distance are blurrier than
those that are close. You can see this in the picture presented on your screen -
(slide 7)

The mountains far behind seem hazier than the mountains in the front.

The next monocular cue is – (slide 8)

5. Texture gradient – take a look at any large expanses of pebbles, rocks or

patterned roads such as a cobblestone street. The pebbles or the bricks that are
close to you are very distinctly textured, but as you look farther off into the
distance, their texture becomes finer and smaller. This trick of ‘Texture gradient’
is used by artists to give illusion of depth in a painting.
(Slide 8) In this picture on your screen, you can see the details of the broken soil parts
which are closer, but the parts at distance appears to be smaller and finer.

The next monocular cue is – (slide 9)

6. Motion parallax – you might have experienced this – (video -) when you are
travelling in a car or a bus, objects outside the window seem to zip by very fast
when they are close to the car or bus and the objects in the distance, such as
mountains, seem to move more slowly. This discrepancy of motion of near and far
objects is called ‘motion parallax’. This discrepancy serves as a cue to tell us
which objects are closer and which are far away.

The next monocular cue is – (slide 9)

7. Accommodation – this monocular cue is not one of the pictorial cues, rather it
makes use of something that happens inside the eye. The lens of the human eye is
flexible and held in place by a series of muscles. This lens has the tendency to
change its shape or thickness in response to objects near or far away. This is called
as the process of Visual Accommodation. The brain can use this information
about accommodation as a cue for distance. Accommodation is also called a
“muscular cue” (slide 9)
These were some examples of monocular cues. Now let’s understand some binocular
cues. (Slide 10)
Binocular Cues – as the name suggests, binocular cues require the use of two eyes.
Let’s understand the first binocular cue which is called as – (slide 10)
1. Convergence – Hold your finger in front of your nose, and then move it away and
back again. You will notice the feeling in the muscles of your eyes. This is called
as convergence. (slide 10) It refers to the rotation of the two eyes in their sockets
to focus on a single object. This is another muscular cue.

The next binocular cue is – (slide 10)

2. Binocular Disparity- now to understand this cue, hold a pen in front of your nose.
Close one eye, note where the object is and then open the eye and close the other
eye. There will be quite a difference in views. Now hold the pen at almost a hands
distance away from your nose. Close one eye, note where the object is and then
open the eye and close the other eye. Now this time the image does not seem to
jump or move. This is the cue called binocular disparity. Our eyes are a few inches
apart and therefore they don’t see exactly the same image. The brain interprets the
images on the retina to determine distance from the eyes. If the two images are
very different, the object must be pretty close. This is what happened when you
held a pen in front of your nose. If they are almost identical, the object is far
enough away to make the retinal disparity is very small. This is what you
experienced when you held a pen at a distance.

Now let’s reflect on what we have learnt today about depth perception. Please take
a paper and pencil and answer the following questions – (slide 11)

1. When you are looking at the pigeon sitting on the roof of the balcony of the
building infront of you, certain muscles in your eyes relax. But these same
muscles are contracted and alter the shape of your lens when you are looking at
the pigeon sitting on a bar of your window. This cue is called as ________

(slide 12)
2. In the picture below, the shape and texture of the tulips closer to camera are
distinctly clear; but the details of the tulips behind are not very clear. This is
example of the ________ cue.

(slide 13)
3. This image is the example of _____________ cue.
 (slide 14)

4. Arun lifted his heels to take a bag which was kept on the cupboard. He could
gauge the height and distance of the bag correctly. This ability is known as
…………..

5. Sitting at the window of the train, Rita was enjoying the speed with which trees
nearby were moving away; but she was wondering at the same time why the
river behind was appearing to be still. In this example, which cue was Rita
experiencing?

(slide 15)

6. The haziness of the mountain at the back makes us to understand that it is far
away. This is the example of _________ cue.
 (slide 16)
7. The trees in the distance in this picture seem to converge. This is the example
of _________ cue

(slide 17)
8. The tree behind is perceived as farther away in the picture because it is blocked
by the tree which is in the front. This is the example of ________ cue.
 (slide 18)
9. The new hostel seemed to be smaller from the college gate. From this Ganesh
understood that the hostel is far away. This is the example of ______ cue.

(slide 18)
10. This image is the example of ________ cue

(slide 19)
11. What is the difference between monocular and binocular cues?

(slide 20)

You can check the answers now -

Answers –
1. Accommodation
2. Texture gradient
3. Binocular Disparity
4. Depth perception
5. Motion Parallax
6. Aerial perspective
7. Linear perspective
8. Overlap
9. Relative size
10. Convergence
11. Monocular cues require the use of only one eye, whereas binocular cues
require use of both eyes.

Good! Thus in this video, we learnt what is depth perception and we learnt
some examples of monocular and binocular cues which we use for perceiving
depth in the world.

Thank you.