Absolute travel distance from optic flow

Absolute travel distance from optic flow

Optic flow fields provide rich information about the observer's self-motion. Besides estimation of the direction of self-motion human observers are also able to discriminate the travel distances of two self-motion simulations. Recent studies have shown that observers estimate the simulated ego velocity of the self-motion simulation and integrate it over time. Thus, observers use a 3-D percept o...

Humans can use optic flow to estimate distance of travel

We demonstrate that humans can use optic flow to estimate distance travelled when appropriate scaling information is provided. Eleven subjects were presented with visual targets in a virtual corridor. They were then provided with optic flow compatible with movement along the corridor and asked to indicate when they had reached the previously presented target position. Performance depended on th...

Discrimination of travel distances from ‘situated’ optic flow

Effective navigation requires knowledge of the direction of motion and of the distance traveled. Humans can use visual motion cues from optic flow to estimate direction of self-motion. Can they also estimate travel distance from visual motion?Optic flow is ambiguous with regard to travel distance. But when the depth structure of the environment is known or can be inferred, i.e., when the flow c...

Absolute distance perception during in-depth head movement: calibrating optic flow with extra-retinal information

We investigated the ability of monocular human observer to scale absolute distance during sagittal head motion in the presence of pure optic flow information. Subjects were presented at eye-level computer-generated spheres (covered with randomly distributed dots) placed at several distances. We compared the condition of self-motion (SM) versus object-motion (OM) using equivalent optic flow fiel...

Perception of Heading and Driving Distance From Optic Flow