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The generic-viewpoint assumption and illusory contours

The generic-viewpoint assumption and illusory contours
The generic-viewpoint assumption and illusory contours
Visual images are ambiguous. Any image, or collection of images, is consistent with an infinite number of possible scenes in the world. Yet we are generally unaware of this ambiguity. During ordinary perception we are generally aware of only one, or perhaps a few of these possibilities. Human vision evidently exploits certain constraints -- assumptions about the world and images formed of it -- in order to generate its perceptions. One constraint that has been widely studied by researchers in human and machine vision is the generic-viewpoint assumption. We show that this assumption can help to explain the widely discussed fact that outlines of blobs are ineffective inducers of illusory contours. We also present a number of novel effects and report an experiment suggesting that the generic-viewpoint assumption strongly influences illusory-contour perception.
303-312
Albert, Mark K.
a571e655-e2f4-40c4-8e11-934f5026dc38
Hoffman, Donald D.
ca20b546-bd1a-494e-ad0c-e015250246a3
Albert, Mark K.
a571e655-e2f4-40c4-8e11-934f5026dc38
Hoffman, Donald D.
ca20b546-bd1a-494e-ad0c-e015250246a3

Albert, Mark K. and Hoffman, Donald D. (2000) The generic-viewpoint assumption and illusory contours. Perception, 29 (3), 303-312. (10.068/p3016).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Visual images are ambiguous. Any image, or collection of images, is consistent with an infinite number of possible scenes in the world. Yet we are generally unaware of this ambiguity. During ordinary perception we are generally aware of only one, or perhaps a few of these possibilities. Human vision evidently exploits certain constraints -- assumptions about the world and images formed of it -- in order to generate its perceptions. One constraint that has been widely studied by researchers in human and machine vision is the generic-viewpoint assumption. We show that this assumption can help to explain the widely discussed fact that outlines of blobs are ineffective inducers of illusory contours. We also present a number of novel effects and report an experiment suggesting that the generic-viewpoint assumption strongly influences illusory-contour perception.

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Published date: 2000

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 18493
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/18493
DOI: 10.068/p3016
PURE UUID: fafd851f-9755-46ca-8a55-69d8d1a20732

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Date deposited: 14 Dec 2005
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 06:05

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Contributors

Author: Mark K. Albert
Author: Donald D. Hoffman

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