FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-63/10

Title and Subtitle: The perception of depth from binocular disparity

Report Date: May 1963

Authors: Gogel WC

Abstract: This study was concerned with the factors involved in the perception of depth from a binocular disparity. A binocularly observed configuration of constant convergences, constant visual size, and having constant binocular disparities was made to appear at two different distances in a monocularly observed field-of-view. Both the perceived frontoparallel sizes and the perceived depth within the configuration were measured by means of a kinesthetic (hand) adjustment.

It was found that the perceived frontoparallel size and the perceived depth in the binocularly observed configuration increased as the perceived distance of the configuration increased. It is concluded that the perceived depth resulting from a constant binocular disparity will differ depending upon the perceived size per unit of visual angle of frontoparallel extents in its depth vicinity.

Key Words: depth perception, binocular disparity, field of view

No. of Pages: 12