Satoshi SHIOIRI, Tomomichi HATORI, Hirohisa YAGUCHI and Souichi KUBO

Department of Image Science, Chiba University, 1-33, Yayoi, Inage-ku, Chiba, 267 Japan

(Accepted August 26, 1994)

We investigated spatial frequency tuning of the mechanisms for stereoscopic depth perception, using a masking technique, and compared these tunings with those for luminance pattern detection. Observers discriminated depth direction in random-dot stereograms with various contrasts of a masking pattern, which was dichoptic stimulus of uncorrelated random dots. The strength of masking effect as a function of spatial frequency (i.e., masking function) was measured: masking function approximates the spatial frequency tuning of the mechanism that detects the depth in the test pattern. The masking functions for stereoscopic depth were found to be similar to either of the three of the six spatial frequency channels proposed by Wilson and Gelb (1984) for the detection of luminance patterns.

Key words : spatial frequency channel, spatial frequency tuning, masking, stereoscopic depth, binocular disparity