Depth

doi:10.1068/i0438aap

Art and Perception

Depth

Jan Koenderink

University of Leuven (K.U. Leuven), Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Tiensestraat 102-box 3711, BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium, and Delft University of Technology, EEMCS, MMI, Mekelweg 4, NL-2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands

j.j.koenderink@tudelft.nl

Andrea J van Doorn

Delft University of Technology, Industrial Design, Landbergstraat 15, NL-2628 CE Delft, The Netherlands

a.j.vandoorn@tudelft.nl

Johan Wagemans

University of Leuven (K.U. Leuven), Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Tiensestraat 102-box 3711, BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium

johan.wagemans@psy.kuleuven.be

Full text

Please download the latest version of Adobe Reader to view this document

Abstract. Depth is the feeling of remoteness, or separateness, that accompanies awareness in human modalities like vision and audition. In specific cases depths can be graded on an ordinal scale, or even measured quantitatively on an interval scale. In the case of pictorial vision this is complicated by the fact that human observers often appear to apply mental transformations that involve depths in distinct visual directions. This implies that a comparison of empirically determined depths between observers involves pictorial space as an integral entity, whereas comparing pictorial depths as such is meaningless. We describe the formal structure of pictorial space purely in the phenomenological domain, without taking recourse to the theories of optics which properly apply to physical space, a distinct ontological domain. We introduce a number of general ways to design and implement methods of geodesy in pictorial space, and discuss some basic problems associated with such measurements. The paper mainly deals with conceptual issues.

Cite as: Koenderink J, van Doorn A J, Wagemans J, 2011, "Depth" i-Perception 2(6) 541–564
Download citation data in RIS format

DOI: 10.1068/i0438aap

ISSN: 2041-6695 (electronic only)

Copyright: Copyright is retained by the author(s) of this article. This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Licence, which permits noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction, provided the original author(s) and source are credited and no alterations are made.