The role of natural lighting diffuseness in human visual perception

Morgenstern, Yaniv; Geisler, Wilson S.; Murray, Robert K.

doi:10.1117/12.2086258

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Although previous studies have showed that natural lighting is often diffuse and directional (Morgenstern, Geisler, & Murray, 2014), we do not yet know how diffuse the lighting priors for the 3-D shape and lightness perceptions are. The diffuseness of assumed lighting has not attracted as much attention as its direction; however, it is also worth investigating (Langer & Bülthoff, 2000;Morgenstern, Geisler, & Murray, 2015;Murray & Adams, 2019;Stone, Kerrigan, & Porrill, 2009;Xia, Pont, & Heynderickx, 2017a, b, c).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct processes of lighting priors for lightness and 3-D shape perception

Kobayashi¹,

Zavagno²,

Morikawa³

2020

Preprint

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The visual system often relies on prior assumptions when interpreting ambiguous visual inputs. A well-known example is the light-from-above prior, which aids the judgment of an object’s three-dimensional (3-D) shape (i.e., convex or concave). Recent studies have revealed that the light-from-above prior also helps solve lightness ambiguity. This study aimed to examine whether 3-D shape perception and lightness perception share the same lighting prior. The study participants performed two tasks: one focusing on lightness perception and another focusing on 3-D shape perception. The dominant directions of the assumed lighting were calculated from participants’ performance in the two tasks. The results showed that the assumed lighting direction for 3-D shape perception considerably shifted toward the left while the one for lightness perception was almost from directly above. The clear difference between these two directions supports the hypothesis that the visual system uses distinct lighting priors for 3-D shape perception and lightness perception. Japanese and European observers then replicated these results, indicating that the lighting priors are universal regardless of reading/writing direction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct processes of lighting priors for lightness and 3-D shape perception

Kobayashi¹,

Zavagno²,

Morikawa³

2020

Preprint

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“…The light field in natural scenes is highly complicated due to intricate optical interactions, containing low and high frequencies in the radiance distribution function. Nonetheless, the human visual system (HVS) is able to distinguish the intensity, the primary illumination direction, and the diffuseness, which are basic (low-order) properties of a light field ( Cuttle, 2003 ; Frandsen, 1989 ; Koenderink, van Doorn, Kappers, Pont, & Todd, 2005 ; Morgenstern, 2011 ; Morgenstern, Geisler, & Murray, 2014 ; Mury, Pont, & Koenderink, 2007 ; O'shea, Agrawala, & Banks, 2010 ; Pentland, 1982 ; Pont, 2013 ; Te Pas & Pont, 2005 ). Mury et al ( Mury, 2009 ) described the relations between the mathematical structure and physical meaning of the light field components, plus a manner to measure and visualize the light field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Visual Light Field in Real Scenes

2014

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Human observers' ability to infer the light field in empty space is known as the “visual light field.” While most relevant studies were performed using images on computer screens, we investigate the visual light field in a real scene by using a novel experimental setup. A “probe” and a scene were mixed optically using a semitransparent mirror. Twenty participants were asked to judge whether the probe fitted the scene with regard to the illumination intensity, direction, and diffuseness. Both smooth and rough probes were used to test whether observers use the additional cues for the illumination direction and diffuseness provided by the 3D texture over the rough probe. The results confirmed that observers are sensitive to the intensity, direction, and diffuseness of the illumination also in real scenes. For some lighting combinations on scene and probe, the awareness of a mismatch between the probe and scene was found to depend on which lighting condition was on the scene and which on the probe, which we called the “swap effect.” For these cases, the observers judged the fit to be better if the average luminance of the visible parts of the probe was closer to the average luminance of the visible parts of the scene objects. The use of a rough instead of smooth probe was found to significantly improve observers' abilities to detect mismatches in lighting diffuseness and directions.

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“…Although previous studies have shown that natural lighting is often diffuse and directional ( Morgenstern, Geisler, & Murray, 2014 ), we do not yet know how diffuse the lighting priors for the 3-D shape and lightness perceptions are. The diffuseness of assumed lighting has not attracted as much attention as its direction; however, it is also worth investigating ( Langer & Bülthoff, 2000 ; Morgenstern, Geisler, & Murray, 2015 ; Murray & Adams, 2019 ; Stone, Kerrigan, & Porrill, 2009 ; Xia, Pont, & Heynderickx, 2017a , 2017b , 2017c ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct processes of lighting priors for lightness and 3-D shape perception

2021

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The visual system often relies on prior assumptions when interpreting ambiguous visual inputs. A well-known example is the light-from-above prior, which aids the judgment of an object's three-dimensional (3-D) shape (i.e., convex or concave). Recent studies have revealed that the light-from-above prior also helps solve lightness ambiguity. This study aimed to examine whether 3-D shape perception and lightness perception share the same lighting prior. The study participants performed two tasks: one focusing on lightness perception and another focusing on 3-D shape perception. The dominant directions of the assumed lighting were calculated from participants' performance in the two tasks. The results showed that the assumed lighting direction for 3-D shape perception were considerably biased toward the left, whereas the one for lightness perception was almost from directly above. The clear difference between these two directions supports the hypothesis that the visual system uses distinct lighting priors for 3-D shape perception and lightness perception. Experiments 1 and 2 involved Japanese speaking participants and European participants, respectively. The Japanese language can be read and written both horizontally (i.e., left to right) and vertically (i.e., up to down) with lines progressing from right to left. Nevertheless, the two experiments still produced the same result, which suggests that the present finding is universal regardless of reading/writing direction.

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The role of natural lighting diffuseness in human visual perception

Cited by 5 publications

References 31 publications

Distinct processes of lighting priors for lightness and 3-D shape perception

Distinct processes of lighting priors for lightness and 3-D shape perception

The Visual Light Field in Real Scenes

Distinct processes of lighting priors for lightness and 3-D shape perception

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