FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-65/32

Title and Subtitle: Problems in depth perception: A method of simulating objects moving in depth.

Report Date: December 1965

Authors: Gogel WC, Mertens HW.

Abstract: Equations were developed for the simulation on a screen of the movement of an object or surface toward or away from an observer by the movement of a positive photographic transparency of the object or surface away or toward a point source. The general case was developed for simulating objects in which the distance of the observer from the screen was constant but not necessarily equal to the distance of the point source from the screen.

Equations were developed relating the dimensions of the rigid transparency to those of the rigid simulated object. These equations, under a wide variety of conditions, permit the simulation of surfaces or objects moving in depth at any designated linear speed or acceleration with respect to the observer.

Key Words: photographic projectors, space perception, mathematical models, simulation, optical images, display systems, equations.

No. of Pages: 8