The role of contrast in the perceived depth of monocular imagery

Abstract

There are many visual cues that provide sensations of depth or distance in our observations of real-world 3D scenes as well as 2D images. In the latter case, these cues are monocular in that the images appear the same to both retinae and do not have binocular disparity that can be used to form depth judgments. Examples include perspective, relative sizes of objects, familiarity with sizes of objects, occlusion, contrast, brightness, color saturation, and haze. Contrast and brightness are of particular interest to us since they can be manipulated through a much greater range on high dynamic range displays than is possible on conventional displays.