Depth Perception: Depth perception is the ability to judge the distances of objects, which also allows us to see them

in three dimensions. Obviously, images that strike the retina are two dimensional, but because our visual systems have the capacity to interpret stimuli in terms of relative depth, we see these objects not as flat, but as having some depth. Monocular depth cues are those cues that are arrived at when the subject views his surroundings with just one eye. Monocular cues provide depth information when viewing a scene with one eye. Perception of motion requires only one eye . television or movies which use moving pictures. So that you can get some idea how motion can give a powerful sense of depth. depth cues such as interposition, relative size, and linear perspective available to each eye alone. Binocular depth cues are those cues that are picked up when the subject perceives his / her surroundings with both eyes. Binocular cues provide depth information when viewing a scene with both eyes. These binocular, or two-eye, depth cues require true depth and thus we will not discuss them in context with paintings or drawings. For example, there is the binocular depth cue called disparity. Disparity arises from the fact that our two eyes have a slightly different view of the world. To allow you to see disparity requires either real depth or two images developed as if from different positions like our eyes. depth cues such as retinal

moon is higher in the sky there are no known objects or frame of references to judge the moon's closeness, and thus, appears smaller and farther away. This is called the lunar illusion.This reducing in size at the eye is part of the reason that people look like ants as you fly in an airplane and stars appear as dots even though they are enormous. An object's smaller size on your retina when it is farther away from you is called relative size. when two objects are presumed to be the same size, the one that casts a smaller retinal image is perceived as farther away. Retinal image size allow us to judge distance based on our past and present experience and familiarity with similar objects. As the car drives away, the retinal image becomes smaller and smaller. We interpret this as the car getting further and further away. This is referred to as size constancy.if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer. if we assume two objects are similar in size we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away Interposition When one object overlaps another, the object that is partially obscured is perceived as being farther away. if one object partially blocks the view of another, we perceive it as closer
Linear Perspective When objects of known distance subtend a smaller and smaller angle, it is interpreted as being further away. Parallel lines converge with increasing distance such as roads, railway lines, electric wires. Parallel lines appear to meet as they travel into the distance. For example, the outer edges of a road seem to grow closer and closer until they appear to meet. The closer together the two lines are, the greater the distance will seem. parallel

disparity and convergence that depend on use of two eyes

lines such as RR tracks, seem to converge with distance; the greater the convergence, the greater the distance perceived

Relative size The more distant an object, say a person, is the smaller the image of that object will be on your retina, the back of the eye where we really begin to "see". This effect on object size as distance increases is illustrated in the figure to the right. The arrows are the same size (I cut and pasted the two red arrows just to make sure). The black lines to each arrow indicate the size of the object at the eye. Notice how much larger the angle formed by the black lines to the closer arrow is (there are gray regions on each side of the angle formed by the black lines to the more distant arrow). This reducing in size at the eye is part of the reason that people look like ants as you fly in an airplane and stars appear as dots even though they are enormous. An object's smaller size on your retina when it is farther away from you is called relative size. The animation below will let you see how relative size can work as a depth cue. Clicking the Grow Fast button (or pressing the number 1 key) will have the blue circle go from small to large. For most people, it will also look like it gets closer. The Shrink Fast (2) button will have the blue circle go from large to small and for most people it will look like it moves away in depth. The plus and minus will make the blue circle get larger and smaller a little step at a time. If the plus and minus are not visible on the interactivity, you can click on the Step Circle (s) button to bring it back. [This animation uses Flash. You can get a free player here.]

Paintings take advantage of this fact in a most careful fashion; in fact the paintings would look very odd if they did not (Boring, 1964). Take the painting shown below, "Sculls" by Gustave Caillebotte. Note the two people rowing the boat, the closer one is painted much larger than the other. Even the two paddles near each other in the middle right-hand side of the picture show the use of relative size. The paddle from the closer boat, which is off the painting, is painted larger that the paddle from the main boat that Caillebotte is depicting.
Note one additional feature about relative size: The boater in the background does not look abnormal in any way. Despite being painted smaller, the person does not look like a midget. The normal size of the more distant person is due to a mechanism called size constancy which will be discussed later when more of the depth cues have been covered.

interposition Textbooks use simple images to illustrate many of the perceptual cues that give rise to the impression of depth. These images allow the reader to focus on one particular cue at a time

and to see how the impression of depth arises from that cue alone. In fact, each topic in this tutorial is headed with a simple drawing illustrating the depth cue. For example, the first depth cue to be discussed here is interposition which is the partial blocking of a more distant object by a nearer object. Check the small figure with the word interposition at the beginning of this page. There are two rectangles with the farther rectangle, lower and to the right, partially obscured by the nearer one, right? Well, actually both rectangles are at the same distance (the distance of the screen from your eyes). It is the interposition, overlap, that causes the sense of depth to arise. Usually the impression of depth caused by interposition alone is not very strong. For another illustration of interposition, look at the image below. Here are three figures. They start out appearing at the same depth when they are not overlapped. When the move together to overlap, then they appear to be a different depths, with the figure on the left appearing nearest. The virtue of studying depth cues in art rather than in simple drawings is seeing the cues in action, as it were. But the amount of depth that is perceived is not relevant, i.e., the sole purpose of these simple illustrations is to show that depth can be generated from the depth cue and not how that depth cue can be used to depict a realistic depth scene. In art, on the other hand, the amount of depth that is perceived is extremely important. The representation of depth has a specific goal not found in the simple drawings. Take the example of interposition. As stated above, the impression of depth that generally arises from interposition is quite minimal, but when the depth range that is being depicted is quite small, overlap may become a very important depth cue as in the painting by Sandro Botticelli below:

Linear perspective is a depth cue that is related to both relative size and the next depth cue, texture gradient. In linear perspective parallel lines that recede into the distance appear to get closer together or converge. Take the animation below. Initially, the scene appears flat. There are lines going in different directions. Click on the add perspective button and the lines move. The three parallel lines now are wider at the bottom and get closer together as they climb the scene. Does the scene now appear flat? Try the demonstration. After you have added the perspective, you can easily remove it by clicking the remove perspective button.

Does the image appear like looking down a road to the horizon? At least that is the way it appears to many. Now the image has the appearance of depth just by rotating parallel lines towards each other. Artist use this cue to indicate how a building is oriented, among other things. A could of examples will illustrate this use of linear perspective. The first example is this painting by Jan Vermeer. The part of the building that is of interest right now is the front of the building. The bricks and other features of the front of the building are parallel, mostly, and they do not get closer

together as they go across the scene. As such, we see the building as if we were looking at it from straight on. It looks flat. No look at the painting to the left. Here is Paris Street: A Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebote. Look at the building in the background. The separation between the floors are clearly indicated. No, these lines should be parallel or people would have very odd experiences walking from one end of the floor to the next. Yet, these lines converge and give the indication that the building is angled and that the surfaces recede in depth. Thus, parallel lines indicate a flat surface and converging lines that we see as parallel indicate a surface that recedes in depth. It might help to go back to the interactive illustration above. Because of the similarity of how this depth cue works, some people have argued that it is not a separate cue from relative size and texture gradient (Cutting, 1997). However, since linear perspective can be illustrated in ways so differently from relative size and texture gradient, I have kept it here.