Abstract
Here I introduce a remarkable new class of visual illusions that reveal that binocular presentation can give rise to the percept of volumes that appear to vary smoothly across discrete depths in binocularly fused images, when in fact only two binocular disparities are discretely defined between corresponding contour elements of the inducing elements. Surfaces are filled in from one depth layer's visible contours to another layer's within virtual contours interpolated on the basis of good continuation (e.g. Tse, 1999ab) between visible contour portions. When there are two or more surface-propagating contour segments, the propagated surfaces can merge and possess a depth and perceived surface curvature consistent with all visible contour segments, despite the absence of local disparity cues at interpolated surface locations far from any visible contour. In addition, I introduce a new class of dynamic volume completion, where constant image elements can link across a gap between two or more objects, leading to the perception of illusory volumes that deform non-rigidly as the rigid image inducers move. These new demonstrations provide further evidence that volume completion is not dictated solely by contour relatability constraints, but is instead a dynamic process of volumetric construction that takes into account dynamic cues to object shape even in the absence of any contour relatability whatsoever. These demonstrations place constraints on the surface and volume generation processes that construct our 3D world, yet cannot be easily explained by existing models of visual processing. These demonstrations suggest that there may be a specialized system that completes 3D spatial surface/volume layout for objects. Such an 'object mesh cell' system, if one exists, would not only interpolate portions of surfaces that are not visible, but also self-occluded portions of surfaces, such as the hidden sides of a volume.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017