The darker-is-deeper heuristic for the perception of 3D shape from shading: Is it perceptually or ecologically valid?

The darker-is-deeper heuristic was originally proposed by Langer and Zucker (1994) for approximating 3D shape from shading under conditions of diffuse illumination that typically occur for outdoor scenes on a cloudy day, and it is based on the assumption that vignetting is the primary source of luminance variation under those conditions. It was later rejected as a model of human perception by Langer and Bülthoff (2000), because points in concavities that appear to be the deepest are most often located on local luminance maxima. Despite that result, this heuristic has continued to be described in the literature as a viable model of human perception (e.g., Chen & Tyler, 2015; Tyler, 1998), based entirely on the appearance of image intensity gratings, which have little or no connection to real 3D surfaces or patterns of illumination. In this article we will present a large number of examples to show what actually happens when surfaces are viewed under directional and diffuse illuminations. The results will highlight a number of well-known phenomena in addition to vignetting that can influence the pattern of shading on a surface under diffuse illumination, and they will also demonstrate that the darker-is-deeper heuristic is generally invalid for all types of illumination, except in unusual circumstances.

Magically deceptive biological motion-the French Drop Sleight.

Intentional deception, as is common in the performance of magic tricks, can provide valuable insight into the mechanisms of perception and action. Much of the recent investigations into this form of deception revolve around the attention of the observer. Here, we present experiments designed to investigate the contributions of the performer to the act of deception. An experienced magician and a naïve novice performed a classic sleight known as the French Drop. Video recordings of the performance were used to measure the quality of the deception-e.g., if a non-magician observer could discriminate instances where the sleight was performed (a deceptive performance) from those where it was not (a veridical performace). During the performance we recorded the trajectory of the hands and measured muscle activity via EMG to help understand the biomechanical mechanisms of this deception. We show that expertise plays a major role in the quality of the deception and that there are significant variations in the motion and muscular behaviors between successful and unsuccessful performances. Smooth, minimal movements with an exaggerated faux-transfer of muscular tension were characteristic of better deception. This finding is consistent with anecdotal reports and the magic performance literature.

The effects of smooth occlusions and directions of illumination on the visual perception of 3-D shape from shading.

Human observers made local orientation judgments of smoothly shaded surfaces illuminated from different directions by large area lights, both with and without visible smooth occlusion contours. Test-retest correlations between the first and second halves of the experiment revealed that observers' judgments were highly reliable, with a residual error of only 2%. Over 88% of the variance between observers' judgments and the simulated objects could be accounted for by an affine correlation, but there was also a systematic nonaffine component that accounted for approximately 10% of the perceptual error. The presence or absence of visible smooth occlusion contours had a negligible effect on performance, but there was a small effect of the illumination direction, such that the response surfaces were sheared slightly toward the light source. These shearing effects were much smaller, however, than the effects produced by changes in illumination on the overall pattern of luminance or luminance gradients. Implications of these results for current models of estimating 3-D shape from shading are considered.

Is the perception of 3D shape from shading based on assumed reflectance and illumination?

The research described in the present article was designed to compare three types of image shading: one generated with a Lambertian BRDF and homogeneous illumination such that image intensity was determined entirely by local surface orientation irrespective of position; one that was textured with a linear intensity gradient, such that image intensity was determined entirely by local surface position irrespective of orientation; and another that was generated with a Lambertian BRDF and inhomogeneous illumination such that image intensity was influenced by both position and orientation. A gauge figure adjustment task was used to measure observers' perceptions of local surface orientation on the depicted surfaces, and the probe points included 60 pairs of regions that both had the same orientation. The results show clearly that observers' perceptions of these three types of stimuli were remarkably similar, and that probe regions with similar apparent orientations could have large differences in image intensity. This latter finding is incompatible with any process for computing shape from shading that assumes any plausible reflectance function combined with any possible homogeneous illumination.

From the heart to the mind's eye: cardiac vagal tone is related to visual perception of fearful faces at high spatial frequency.

The neurovisceral integration model (Thayer and Lane, 2000) proposes that vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV)--an index of cardiac vagal tone--is associated with autonomic flexibility and emotional self-regulation. Two experiments examined the relationship between vagally mediated HRV and visual perception of affectively significant stimuli at different spatial frequencies. In Experiment 1, HRV was positively correlated with superior performance discriminating the emotion of affectively significant (i.e., fearful) faces at high spatial frequency (HSF). In Experiment 2, processing goals moderated the relationship between HRV and successful discrimination of HSF fearful faces. In contrast to Experiment 1, discriminating the expressiveness of HSF fearful faces was not correlated with HRV. The current research suggests that HRV is positively associated with superior visual discrimination of affectively significant stimuli at high spatial frequency, and this relationship may be sensitive to the top-down influence of different processing goals.

The perception of 3D shape from planar cut contours.

A new computational analysis is described for estimating 3D shapes from orthographic images of surfaces that are textured with planar cut contours. For any given contour pattern, this model provides a family of possible interpretations that are all related by affine scaling and shearing transformations in depth, depending on the specific values of its free parameters that are used to compute the shape estimate. Two psychophysical experiments were performed in an effort to compare the model predictions with observers' judgments of 3D shape for developable and non-developable surfaces. The results reveal that observers' perceptions can be systematically distorted by affine scaling and shearing transformations in depth and that the magnitude and direction of these distortions vary systematically with the 3D orientations of the contour planes.